Snow Point
by Quetzalcoatls
Summary: End of fourth year and Voldemort's back,but Harry's not going to wait for him to make the first move.With a little help hes found a way out.Snow Point Academy,hidden in the frozen reaches of the Antarctic ocean,is nothing like Hogwarts.But to win this war that may be exactly what Harry needs.Ron/dumbles/order Bashing.Good Hermonie! Animagus! fusion with Heralds of Valdemar(fut. AU)
1. Who I Am

Edited - Mar 4 2013

**Snow Point Academy of Magic**

**Chapter 1**: Who I Am - Smile Empty Soul

The library had been no different than usual that morning, not unless you counted one frustrated and frantic 4th year trying to ensure his continued survival. As far as Harry was concerned the first task had been a fluke, and the second task had just been another incident of his absurd luck showing through once more. Harry knew without a doubt however that his luck was going to run out someday, and it could just as easily be in that maze tomorrow as ten years from now.

If there was one thing Harry didn't want to do, it was die - let alone die in another one of Dumbledore's damn schemes. Oh don't get him wrong, he knew Dumbledore hadn't put his name in that goblet, but he also knew that the old bastard would quite happily look the other way if the situation would work with his plans.

That was how it had been for the last three years, and he saw no reason for Dumbledore to change his tune now. As much as he loved this castle and considered it his home, it had fast become a dangerous prison, a prison he needed to escape if he wanted to live to seventeen, let alone old age. Harry smiled humorlessly at the book on the table...living, could he even really say that he was 'living'? Surviving maybe, but not living. What did it even mean to live?

He doubted he would ever know the answer.

While Harry poured over a spell book and contemplated his rather grim prospects in life, another was watching him and listening to his thoughts. Hogwarts was indeed alive as many over the years had speculated, but her mind was nothing like a human's. The ancient castle could be said to have more in common with a tree then a human as far as her mind went.

That's not to say she wasn't aware of those who lived within her walls, she most certainly was. They were her children and she would protect them to the best of her abilities until not even two stones of her walls rested upon each other. But her thoughts were slow, spanning decades, not moments, and rarely could a single soul rouse her enough to gain her singular attention. This child though, this child had...

She had seen him that first year when he fought the foul beast that had been allowed within her walls. Though she hated to acknowledge it, the child was right. If he wished to live he would have to go elsewhere. Hours passed while Harry studied and Hogwarts contemplated a way to protect this one child from threats she was prevented from sealing outside her walls. Everyone in the castle felt a strange sense of sadness leeched into their minds as the Castle finally made her decision, though few recognized it for what it was, thinking it only the cloudy weather making them feel morose.

High in Ravenclaw tower however, a blond and blue-eyed third year curled up under her blankets, tears leaking from her eyes. She knew where the sadness came from. She may not have know exactly what brought the castle to such a feeling, but she knew that something was going to happen, and when something happened there was usually one particular Gryffindor at the center.

When Hogwarts finally acted there were no dramatics, no spells of great power enacted. When you were as old as Hogwarts was you knew how to start a landslide with the tiniest pebble. And so a single book vanished from the shelves of the library and found its way into Harry's trunk, buried deep under all his things and not to be discovered until two weeks into the summer. Hogwarts contemplated her work for a long moment, if she had been human she would have smiled. Yes, her little lion could do it. He would slip his leash, and become a force to be reckoned with.

X X X

**July 1st summer after 4th year**

Harry could honestly say that this was _not_ his worst summer to date. That title was still held by the summer of second year. So far everyone was ignoring him, he may be starving, but that was hardly a new development. No one was screaming at him, or demanding he do every single little chore that Petunia could possibly come up with. So, all in all, not to shabby.

However, that didn't change the fact that he was bored out of his mind. He rolled over, glaring at the books stacked up on his desk. At this point he had reread all of them, _twice. _Hermione would be so please, but he hadn't talked to her all summer.

Hedwig would return with unopened letters if her sent her out. About a week into the summer he had received an answer to this situation when Fawks had arrived with a note from Dumbledore telling him that for his and his friends' safety he would be blocking all mail either way so no owls could be tracked. That announcement had been accompanied by a fair bit of snarling and snapped pencils on Harry's part.

Only one thing had made the weeks of isolation even vaguely bearably. Moony and Padfoot had decided to circumvent Dumbledore's 'no training Harry in anything remotely useful rule', unspoken though it may be, and had sent letters to him all summer after third year along with one potion.

Harry smirked and looked down at his hand before concentrating hard, watching as deep blue-gray fur slowly started to sprout, even as his fingers morphed into wicked claws. He stopped after a few moments breathing a little hard but pleased none the less, it had only taken a minute.

Where a human hand had once been there was now a furred paw, tipped with black claws. Hermione would blow a gasket if she knew the Marauders were teaching him how to be an animagus, but Harry would weather her wrath for this any day. He had managed to transform completely once already at the end of the year, but it had taken nearly an hour to change and almost three to change back.

This had been celebrated with a bottle of fire whiskey in the shrieking shack with both of the Marauders. Harry had been a little put out to realize that Sirius hadn't left the country like everyone thought. They had both laughed at that, pointing out that that's the whole reason no one would think to look for him in Britain. When he had voiced concern over how long it took him to change Sirius had been quick to point out that he was already ahead of the marauders when they had learned how to do this. After only one year he had managed the complete transformation, the only thing that would make it go fast was practice.

At first the identity of his form had been something of a mystery, but Moony had pulled through and after a few days of research they had a name. Apparently he was a Maltese, or Blue Tiger. Harry had wanted to strangle someone when he learned that he had once again gone and done something no one had managed since Merlin.

The great tigers, although known to muggles, were in fact magical. Looking to a muggle like a blue-gray tiger with darker gray stripes, but they didn't quite look the same to those with magic. The dark gray wings for one thing weren't visible to them, but otherwise they did in general look like a tiger, but with long pointed ears, and deep blue-gray fur with smoky gray strips.

On his face and chest however, the markings were far from normal looking, and looked more like swirling tribal tattoos then anything else.

Snorting at the memory of Sirius's rather garbled letter on the subject he focused on changing his hand back. Little did Harry know, but the notice-me-not charm on the book hidden in his trunk had chosen that moment to fail. Though the book itself would remain undiscovered until the next day.

X X X

**July 2**

The fading sunlight glinted off the window, throwing the cracked sill into sharp relief as Harry contemplated his life, and so far nothing he remembered could give him a sufficient reason to turn away from the course that had presented itself to him. He looked down at the book laying open on the bed before him. Page 217.

Harry closed his eyes and sighed. Did he really want to do it? Did he really want to throw it all away? Looking back down at the pages he read the passage once more.

_Snow Point Academy of Magic_

_Snow Point Academy is located on an island somewhere in the Drake passage, between Antarctica and South America. The rough seas and weather aid the magics of the island in hiding its presence. It is shaped roughly like an elongated diamond with the points facing east and west. Snow Point Academy was founded roughly 800 years ago in 1200AD by a Scottish witch named Endellion. Endellion left her home land of Scotland and founded the remote school after having a vision of the future and deciding such a school was necessary. Snow Point Academy is different from other schools in that it accepts no one under the age of 15 and all magical beings regardless of species are welcome._

_Most humans are however hesitant to send their children to Snow Point due to its cut throat culture. A culture which has never failed to turn out the best and brightest magicians no matter their species, as well as kill at least one third of students before the five year curriculum is over._

_Snow Point is also known to not differentiate between, what is in modern times, considered light and dark magic, including classes such as Necromancy and Elemental Magic, both of which have been outlawed for over 500 years in Europe. Even then one cannot simply enroll in Snow Point._

_All prospective students arrive at Ushuaia, Argentina - the southern most city in the world - on September 10th, it is here they will receive a compass that will always point to the school. Their task is to make it to the school alive in two days. A journey thought to be some 300 miles through mountains and across the ocean. These distances can however only be speculated on as the exact location of the school is unknown._

_Due to the limited information about the trial to reach Snow Point little is know about what happens when one reaches the school,and what happens when you fail, but it is know from one unsubstantiated report that if at the end of two days a prospective student has failed to reach the island the compass will vanish leaving them to attempt a return trip on their own._

_Few have survived to try a second time._

Not for the first time Harry wondered how this book had found its way into his trunk. He may not have believed in Destiny, but he believed in coincidences even less. Because this was his answer, the spell Voldemort had used to bring himself back to life had to be some kind of necromancy, and something else had kept the bastard alive that night he had nearly been destroyed.

What better way to learn how to put the monster down for good then necromancy? Even if that didn't work he could always ask the teacher for advice on making sure people you killed stayed dead.

But he had to wonder, was this one of Dumbledore's plots? No, he decided, the old fool would never let him learn something as 'dark' as necromancy, let alone go so far from his control. This was someone else, but in the end who had left the book didn't really matter, this was his chance and he was going to take it.

X X X

**July 4th**

British wizards, Harry decided were over rated, _vastly overrated. _If Dumbledore had honestly thought that his new guards would escape his notice then the old man really was going senile. Apparently the he had forgotten Harry had an invisibility cloak, and absolutely no hesitation in using it.

Pocketing his wand he glanced out the window, picking out the foot prints in the grass where his watcher stood. With a smirk he stepped out of immediate view before throwing the shimmering cloak over his shoulders and heading downstairs. He paused for a moment glancing into the living room at Dudley, sitting in front of the TV. The whale was bigger than ever, taking up nearly the entire couch on his own.

With a disgusted shake of his head he continued on, heading for the back door. Although the invisibility cloak was good and all, the watcher would still see the door being opened by nothing. So he would be taking the back door and sneaking into the neighboring yard before heading out to the street and down the road to summon the Night Bus.

Harry glanced back down the sidewalk glad to note that as far as he could tell his watcher hadn't caught on. Ducking into the bushes he pulled the cloak off and stuffed it into his backpack before stepping up to the edge of the road and holding out his wand. With a tremendous bang the violet triple-decker form of the Night Bus all but exploded into view. Harry winced and took a step back as the bus almost took his nose off, it had appeared far too close to the curb in Harry's opinion.

"'Ello! Welcome to da the nigh' bus! Transport for da stranded Witch er Wizard!" the bus driver yelled. Harry blinked, surprised to see that both the driver and his assistant were different than last year.

Oh well, better for him. Hopefully with his scar covered up, his hair temporary tamed with some hair gel, and contacts he would be unrecognizable enough. Shoving a handful of sickles at the man he simply snapped.

"Diagon Ally." The less he said the better his chances of going unremarked upon were. One white knuckle ride later and Harry was staggering into the leaky cauldron with a grimace on his face. Ignoring the curious looks of those in the bar he took a moment to regain his balance before he made his way to the back.

He grinned with relief when no clamor of excited talking erupted behind him, it would seem his disguise was working. Who would have thought smoothing down his hair and no glasses would make such an obvious difference. Even with the minor differences someone would look for his scar when they saw him, and not seeing it they would assume that he just looked a bit like Harry Potter, but wasn't the real thing.

Tapping out the sequence on the bricks he watched the entrance unfold in front of him, a faint smile of childish glee on his face._'That never gets old', _he thought happily, taking in the alley and noting that there weren't nearly as many people as normal. Then again, it wasn't a bad idea in theory to take himself here when the alley was its busiest, for a normal person it would prevent him from being noticed as easily. For him the sea of red hair that normally accompanied him was a dead give away.

Heading into the alley Harry couldn't help but look around like a green firsty, no matter how often he came here, it never lost its wonder for him. Forcing himself to focus he told himself that there was no point in looking, he needed money first.

Gringotts was just as massive and overbearing as usual, the goblin guards scowling at him. He just nodded to them before moving on. Moving past as he did he missed the faint looks of surprise that flashed across the goblins faces.

Heading for a teller Harry handed over his key, the goblin took it wordlessly before frowning sharply, and giving him a vicious look. Harry looked at him in honest confusion, he knew goblins didn't like wizards, but that seemed to be a bit much.

Harry's eye narrowed, studying the key in the goblins hand for a moment, before cursing. He had an idea of what the problem was now. "Let me guess," he drawled, "Dumbledore gave me a fake key?" The goblin just barred his teeth in an evil grin. "Of course..." Harry muttered, annoyed as the teller signaled the guards. "Is there a way to prove I am indeed Harry Potter, and not some idiotic thief, that will not permanently injure or kill me?" The goblin raised an eyebrow, smirking.

"Yes, although failing the test will result in a most painful and gruesome death, do you still wish to take it?" The goblin looked like he was seriously hoping Harry would. Nothing like listening to stupid wizards scream in agony in the morning Harry thought wryly.

"Yes, yes I would. What is required?" he asked, not breaking eye contact or letting his own smirk leave his face. The goblin eyed him speculatively for a moment before chuckling, Harry resisting the urge to wince at the sound.

"Follow me." He answered, grinning and signaling the guards once more. Harry almost laughed at the looks of disappointment on their faces as he followed the teller out of the main lobby and down a hallway. The gold lined halls were so massive you could have walked an elephant though them with no trouble.

A few minutes later they arrived at a large iron door, the goblin tapped it and loud ku-thunks echoed down the hall as the locks disengaged. With a tug the goblin hauled the door open and stepped aside gesturing for him to enter, he eyed the door for a moment before looking at the goblin.

"I do get to take the test, yeah? You're not just going to lock me in there until I starve or something are you?" The goblin actually snorted at the question.

"Of course not. Watching you fail the test will be much more amusing." At the answer Harry simply nodded.

"True enough," He agreed, stepping forward and entering the stone room, the goblin closing the door behind them. In the center of the room was a table with a stone spike, around a foot tall, in the middle. Tiny runes covered every inch of the spike. Harry eyed it wearily at the goblin walked up and tapped several runes.

"You need to prick the palm of you hand on the spike enough to draw blood, if you are indeed Harry Potter it will glow. If you are not it will glow, then begin slowly dissolving your flesh and turning your blood to acid." Harry eyed the spike for a moment before shrugging and stepping forward, it wasn't like blood or pain bothered him any.

The top of the spike was wickedly sharp and it didn't take much force to cut his hand on it, and he didn't bother trying to pull it away once he did so. He doubted he could budge it half a millimeter. A long moment passed, the goblin eagerly awaiting his painful demise, then the spike started to glow before going dark. Harry gave his hand an experimental tug and it came away easily.

"So, I'm not dead. Can we get to canceling the key that has apparently been stolen and get a new one made?" He asked politely. The goblin scowled, grumbling and waving at him dismissively.

"Yes yes! Follow me!" he spat. Harry followed, a faint smile on his face as he inspected the small gouge in his hand.

X X X

Walking out of the bank an hour later Harry had to sigh at the goblins never ending irritation with humans, but couldn't find it in himself to be angry at them. With the amount of shit they took from humans they had every right to be assholes. But he had his new key and a big bag of galleons.

Heading down the steps he made his way to the trunk shop, the sent of cedar and leather hitting him with an almost physical blow as he stepped inside. The unpolished wood floor squeaking under his shoes he glanced around, taking in the slightly dim interior and the vast collection of trunks on display. "Hello?" he called, his voice echoing into the back rooms. A loud thunk and a curse made him wince, and hope that whomever he had startled was alright.

"JUST A MOMENT!" the owner yelled, a few more thunks and curses later and a ruffled looking middle aged man appeared at the back door. "Ah yes! My apologies about the wait! My name is Theo Corwind. What can I help you with today?" he asked excitedly.

"Well, I'm planning on doing a lot of traveling soon and I once saw a trunk with multiple expanded compartments, and was wondering if you had something similar?" Harry asked. Theo frowned thoughtfully.

"Can you describe the compartments? How big were they and how many?"

"Um well there were seven as far as I know, and all but one seemed to be about room sized." The man stared at him shocked.

"Truly? It must have been an amazing piece of workmanship to hold six expanded compartments! I've only ever managed two before, I get to three and the whole thing decides to implode on me. Never quite figured out what the problem was. Harry nodded, throwing out his initial idea to get something like Moody's trunk.

"But you can do two compartments like that? How many normal sized one as well or would it just be the two?"

"No no! I can add up to 8 normal sized compartments along with the 2 room size, admittedly small rooms. There about 10 square feet. Nothing grand but they certainly give you enough room for a small portable library, but don't think to try and live in them! I'v never been able to figured out air circulation to an expanded dimension, you would just suffocate.

"So books, clothes, things like that only. If you were willing to have only 4 trunk sized compartments and the two room sized ones however, I can put all sorts of secret compartments in it!" The man rapidly rattled off, Harry blinked checking another one of his idea's off, but the secret compartments sounded good.

"Okay, approximately how much would a custom trunk with 4 regular compartments, 2 rooms, and as many secrets compartments as can be reasonably added, cost?" Harry asked. Theo hummed to himself, looking speculative for a long moment before answering.

"Well that all depends on both the wood and the spell work you want. At the bare minimum you'd be looking at around 50 Galleons, and that's oak with all your basic anti-fire and water wards and regular key locks. For around 150 galleons I can use Cedar for all the interiors along with Iron wood for the frame, and all your basic spells along with a hodgepodge of anti theft charms and password encrypted locks." He finished happily. Harry blinked, that wasn't too bad actually.

"I'll take that second one, but can you add some decorations to it?" The man blinked apparently shocked that he was going to spend so much money.

"Um, er, yes! Of course! Inlays are quiet simple when you have magic to help, but you still need to be able to draw." He added with a grin. Harry smiled, nodding.

"Right, can you do something with a snowy owl on the lid?" he asked, the man looked thoughtful then nodded.

"Yes, an owl shouldn't be difficult, a snowy you said?" He asked, whipping a note book out from seemingly nowhere and beginning to scribble. " And you want everything I mentioned before? The iron wood with cedar and all the spell work with the password locks yes?" At Harry's nod he added more frantic scribblings. "Its going to take about two weeks to make this, can you come back around the 18th?"

"Works for me," Harry agreed, the man nodded happily as Harry turned to leave.

"Oh, one more thing!" Harry made to turn back around when the man conked him on the head with his wand, making him feel like he'd just had water dumped on him. "Most wizards may be idiots but don't assume things, Mister Potter. I won't tattle on you, but do try a better disguise next time? Although I admit when I couldn't spot your scar I almost bought it." Harry winced as the man grinned and conjured a mirror, showing him that his once black hair was now a sandy brown. "The spell will wear off in about two hours." Harry sighed.

"Was it really that bad?" He asked ruefully. Theo laughed.

"Not so much as you'd think, unfortunately its the problem people who would see through it Mr. Potter. Please be more careful in the future." Harry rolled his eyes, exasperated.

"Thanks, two weeks then?" The man nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes that should do it! And mister potter? I'd better not be able to recognize you when you come back! A word of advice on that. Although the magic detectors can pick up spells, potions are another matter entirely. Pick up a basic potions book and look up some color changing potions before you head home." Harry grumbled good naturally and darted out of the shop before he could be heckled anymore.

Theo watched the younger wizard until he had disappeared into Flourish and Blots. Heading back into his work room he surveyed the mass of woods and carving tools before grinning. Oh yes, he was going to have _fun _with this one.

X X X


	2. Someone Else's Life

Edit - Mar 4 2013

**Chapter 2: Someone Else's Life**

**July 18th**

Harry studied himself in the mirror approvingly, taking in his newly dark brown hair and stormy gray eyes, he hadn't done too shabby he thought. Add to that the black jeans and dark gray t-shirt he had bought about a week after returning from Diagon Alley, and he didn't look half bad with his black school cloak.

Putting his wand in his pocket he looked over at his desk, making sure that he had put his cauldron and all his ingredients away. It wouldn't do to have the Dursleys walk in and see things like that, they would throw a fit.

Two days into brewing all the color changing potions he'd had an epiphany. Seeing as he couldn't use magic to protect himself he could use potions and such instead. Currently he had three extra potions in his pockets. One was a potion that would catch fire upon exposure to air and had to be bottled within five minutes of brewing to prevent the reaction. When thrown the bottles would break and anything covered in the liquid would catch fire.

Nothing a full grown wizard couldn't deal with, but something that would hopefully buy him time to disappear if he was attacked. Another created a dense smoke cloud and the last was a rather nasty acid. All had their uses, but he hoped he wouldn't be needing them. Knowing the Ministry he would be charged with assault if he attacked a death eater.

Hedwig chirped curiously at his new look, causing him to grin over at her. "Well? What do you think?" he asked. She gave him a rather critical look before spreading her wings and gliding over to his shoulder to preen his hair. "I'm glad you approve. Hopefully I won't have to use these potions too often, they make my eyes itch."

Moving away from the mirror he studied the yard below, picking out the foot prints in the grass after only a few moments. It was laughable how easy it was for him to spot them, looking for foot prints in grass was a hell of a lot easier than spotting a tiny moving target.

Hedwig clacked her beak, looking at the same spot with irritation almost radiating off her. Ruffling her feathers she glided from his shoulder back to her perch. Smiling Harry tossed his cloak over his shoulders, flipping up the hood and buttoning the front of the cloak closed, hiding him from view.

Heading out the door Harry completely ignored Dudley, who seemed to have not moved since the last time he had left the house, and once more exited though the back and slipped across the neighbors yard. Twenty minutes later found a very dizzy teenaged wizard staggering off a certain bus and leaning heavily against the wall of the leaky cauldron.

"I really need to learn to apparate..." he muttered with a groan. Pulling himself up straight he stood still for a moment and when the scenery stayed put deemed himself recovered enough to enter the pub.

Glancing around as he headed to the back he almost had a heart attack when he spotted Hagrid having what looked to be lunch. All but holding his breath he resisted the urge to run to the entrance of the alley instead of walking calmly as though nothing was wrong.

Hurriedly tapping out the sequence on the brick wall he made a rapid beeline for the trunk shop. He stopped, taking a deep breath before entering the shop, the smell of cedar and leather once more permeating his nose. "Hello?" He called. Just like last time a crash echoed from the back room along with a curse. Theo's reappearance was much quicker this time however, as he popped out the back door only a moment later.

"Oh! Hello! What can I do for you today, Sir?" he asked happily. Harry looked at him amused for a long moment before answering.

"So does this disguise meet your standards, Theo?" He asked with a grin. The man blinked and stared at him for a moment before laughing.

"Oh very good! Not bad at all Mr. Potter! Not bad at all!" Harry smiled wryly.

"So hows my trunk coming?" he asked. Theo gave him an almost frightening grin.

"I finished it last night! Why don't you take a look?" He gestured to the back room, still grinning happily. Harry found the man's enthusiasm to be infectious as he headed to the back and entered the workshop. He spotted the trunk immediately, the front was facing the door as it sat on the back work bench.

The wood had been polished to a nearly iridescent black sheen, the dark grain barely visible, while the fittings on the corners and edges looked to be silver. On the front two inlayed white feathers framed the silver lock, which was shaped like an owls head, the key hole in the open beak.

Behind him Theo was grinning gleefully. There was nothing quite so gratifying after a hard job, as complete awe. Walking forward he picked up the trunk and set it on a knee high table, so he could show his customer all the cool tricks he had added, as well as show him the design on the top. It was probably the best piece he had ever done.

Harry couldn't believe the amount of detail that had been put into the top design. A snowy owl, hung wings outstretched across the lid, talons held forward - as though it was about to fly off of the trunk and attack. Every feather had been carefully etched in with tiny chips of black added in for the spots and bars, golden eyes made of pieces of tigers eye gleamed.

Harry blinked, a sudden thought occurring to him as he stared in awe. The design was perfect, almost to perfect. Theo chuckled seeing the look.

"I see you noticed? You would be surprised how easy it is to get a picture of your owl, Mr. Potter. I kept the design as close as possible."

"This... I can't even..." Harry trailed off, unable to put into words how incredible the work was. Theo just grinned, beyond pleased before speaking in a slightly sing song voice.

"And to think! We haven't even gotten to the cool stuff!" Harry stared at him dumbstruck. "I see I have your attention?" Harry nodded slowly, still in shock. "Right then, don't worry about remembering where all the secret compartments are, I wrote you a manual." he said, pointing to a muggle binder on the desk, about an inch of paper visible inside. Harry gave him an incredulous look.

"Just how many did you add?" He asked faintly. Theo laughed.

"Thirty-two total, Mr. Potter. Some are on the outside, others are on the inside. Ill show you most of them right now, alright?"

And so began the long tour of all the secret compartments. Some were small, only the size of a deck of cards, others could have held things the size of a shoe box and even a longer one that could have easily held his broom. As Theo had said they were peppered all around the trunk, on all sides, in the lid, in the compartments. One even had to be triggered from hidden switches in three different compartments before the catch would release.

To say Harry was in awe would be an understatement, and Theo was having a ball showing him everything, acting like a stage magician with a new trick every time he moved on to a new compartment or feature of the trunk.

Two hours later Theo finally wound down, although still grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Well Mr. Potter. Does it meet you standards?" he asked, Harry rolled his eyes and laughing.

"I could have never imagined something like this! Its fantastic!"

"Thank you, Mr. Potter. Now last but not least the price," He said amused. Harry blinked, having almost forgotten he was actually buying the master piece in front of him. Theo held up a hand to stall any questions, looking serious for the first time. "I ask that you not argue about the price Mr. Potter one way or another that's how much your paying, got it?" Harry nodded slowly a little startled by the sudden change in character.

"So...how much then?" he asked warily, Theo smirking.

"80 galleons, Mr. Potter. Material cost only. Consider it my thank you for giving us fifteen years of peace and my investment in making sure you have only the best to help you on your way." He smiled faintly. "I just hope you come back eventually Mr. Potter. We're going to need you more then ever in the next few years." Harry stared in numb shock at the man.

"I...I... Thank you, Theo... I hadn't thought anyone believed me after the third task..." He finally said, Theo grinning wryly.

"Yes, well, Mr. Potter, I did manage to get tickets to the final task. It was one of those cousins, brothers, uncle has this friend kinda situations. I saw you when you came back, the look on your face... Well as far as I'm concerned there's no way you were lying."

"...Thank you, Theo..." Harry said after a long moment. "And I will be coming back. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, but I'm hopping to learn something that will let me make sure that bastard STAYS dead this time. It might take a while, I honestly have no idea." Theo nodded.

"Alright then Mr. Potter, I wish you good luck. Now lets get you out of here, I should think you have more to do today, yes?"

X X X

Twenty minutes later Harry left the trunk shop, the shrunken trunk currently the size of a shoebox. All the spells on it apparently made it impossible to shrink further, so he carried it in a black backpack Theo had acquired with that in mind.

Making a beeline for Flourish and Blotts Harry picked up a basket by the door and set to work. An hour later and he had 26 books on varying subjects, and several rolls of parchment along with new quills and ink. He would need more, but he planned to make several more trips to the alley before he made a run for it.

Handing 40 galleons over the clerk was kind enough to shrink his bags so he could put them in his back pack before he headed for the Apothecary. Another whirlwind and he was another 53 galleons poorer, but now possessed a wide range of new ingredients for the potions he had been reading about all month.

Pausing outside the Apothecary Harry stared grimly at his next target, and braced himself. Stalking determinedly across the alley he entered the robe shop.

He was barely through the door when Madam Malkin all but appeared at his side, making him flinch. She studied him for a long moment looking him up and down. "So, what will you be needing lad?" she asked as Harry resisted the urge to run.

"Er... I need a new wardrobe," he answered hesitantly, Malkin's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Everything?" she asked. He nodded.

"Er... I'd assume so, I grew up with muggles so I'm not sure what 'everything' amounts to," he answered, a thoughtful look crossed her face at this before she nodded sharply.

"Alright then, let's see what we can do for you, shall we?" A faint smirk on her face made Harry want to whimper.

Four hours later Harry all but ran from the shop, having barely waited long enough for Malkin to shrink his bags before escaping.

X X X

**July 22**

Harry stood over his cauldron, sweat beading on his forehead as he stirred his most recent potion. By some miracle he hadn't blown anything up yet. Apparently not having Snape hovering over him, or Slytherins trying to sabotage him, made this _much _easier. Easy being relative of course, the potion he was attempting was far more difficult then anything else he had tried before.

Clear Sight was a vision correcting potion that took three days to brew, but only needed fairly common ingredients. Why he had never been given this before he didn't understand. The bit he was on right now was tricky, but doable, requiring precisely 5 clockwise stirs and one counter clockwise stir while adding a single beetle eye halfway through each one. Relived, he pulled the stirring rod out and watched the potion intently.

It was supposed to turn light green for about 5 seconds then light blue. If it was green for more then seven seconds then the potion was bad and would make him go blind if he drank it. The potion simmered for a moment before turning a light pastel green and harry started counting. _One...two...three...four...five...si- _the potion turned sky blue. Harry wanted to cheer. Grinning ear to ear he carefully ladled out a dose of Clear Sight, and went to sit down on his rickety bed.

Taking a deep breath he downed the potion and waited, eyes closed. The book said that it would make you eyes feel like they were burning for about a minute depending on how bad your eyesight was, but Harry figured he could handle it. If he could withstand the Cruciatus Curse then he could stand the potion.

A slight itch began but he resisted the urge to rub his eyes. The book had been clear, blinking was alright but no touching. The itch quickly built into a sharp burning, his eyes watered a bit but it really wasn't that bad. At the minute and a half mark the pain ebbed away. He waited a few more seconds before opening his eyes.

Harry blinked and blinked again in shock as he looked out the window across from him, he could actually see the leaves on the tree next door! Everything was in perfect focus now. Hedwig gave a concerned hoot, making him blink and grin at her.

"Awesome."


	3. My Way

**Edited Mar 6 2013**

**Chapter 3: My Way**

**August 28th**

Harry waited calmly for his guards to arrive. Supposedly the Dursleys had won an award for 'best kept lawn' but he had recognized the hand writing as Remus's - it was the end of August so it was reasonable for them to come pick him up. In light of that he had closed up all his potions equipment the moment he had seen the letter and started packing all the generic stuff in his old trunk while squirreling his new goodies away in his new trunk, which was in its backpack in the old trunk under everything else.

Hedwig was sitting on the windowsill, glaring menacingly out at the dark, she liked doing that lately. She would stare straight at whoever was on guard, no doubt freaking the poor people out. He thought it was funny and encouraged her to have fun with them.

A crack echoed down stairs and Harry smiled, imaging Petunia's fit at the broken dishes. Sighing he rolled out of bed and headed out the door. He paused, wand drawn, just around the corner from the stairs listening. He heard a thud and a soft curse and frowned.

"Damn it Tonks! Watch were your going!" A voiced growled softly, Harry's eyes narrowed. Was that...Moody? He shifted, reaching into a pocket and feeling the vials there. Each kind had a different number of bands of tape wrapped around them, he picked the one with three. Holding it carefully, it wouldn't do to drop it if this was legitimate, he leaned around the corner ready to duck and hurl the potion if anyone downstairs so much a breathed funny.

"Whose there?" he barked, earning several thuds and startled curses from the people in the hall.

"Oh for God's sake!" hissed another familiar voice as light bloomed downstairs, reviling an annoyed looking Remus, his wand emitting a soft white light. The other dozen people in the hall all glared at the werewolf. Remus just rolled his eyes, unaffected by their scowling.

"Hello Remus," he drawled, eying the others. Remus smiled wryly.

"Good to see you, Cub. Been holding up?" He asked. Harry merely raised an eyebrow.

"I'm fine. Who are all your friends?" He asked, shifting his grip on the vial, not missing the fact that Moody's fake eye was looking strait at his hand through the wall.

"Sorry Harry, this is the order of the Phoenix, well part of it at any rate." He amended. "Dumbledore sent us to pick you up and take you to a safe house for the rest of the summer." Harry stared at him for a long moment after he explained

"And I would believe this...why exactly? Whats to say your not just a bunch of polyjuiced Death Eaters?" He deadpanned, Moody giving a harsh bark of laughter.

"Finally! A lad with some common sense! Out of curiosity what is that potion your waitin' to throw at us?" He asked, the others in the group tensed, looking worried. Harry snorted, unimpressed at the attempt to trip him up.

"Well, if you can prove you are who you say you are I'll be happy to tell you, otherwise you'll be finding out the slightly more direct way." Moody grinned happily, a truly terrifying expression of the ancient Aurors face.

"Good lad! Now Remus?" He asked sharply. Remus nodded.

"What did you use to kill the basilisk?" He asked. Harry eyed him for a moment before responding.

"The sword of Gryffindor, and Fawkes helped too. How did I rescue Padfoot?" He countered.

"Good timing and creative use of a hippogriff." Harry snorted, relaxing a bit.

"Well that's one way to put it," He responded, stepping out from behind the wall, not letting himself really relax until a few moments with no attack went by.

"Ooh, he looks just like I thought he would," Said a witch in the hall, she looked the youngest there; she had a pale heart-shaped face, dark twinkling eyes, and short spiky hair that was a violent shade of violet. "Wotcher, Harry!"

"Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus," Said a bald black wizard standing furthest back - he had a deep, slow voice and wore a single gold hoop in his ear - "He looks exactly like James."

"Except the eyes," Said a wheezy-voiced, silver-haired wizard at the back. "Lily's eyes." Harry resisted the urge to curse them, his safety was being trusted to a bunch of fangirls, wasn't it?

"So what now?" He asked tartly. Remus snickered softly, guessing the source of Harry's irritation.

"Now we get you to headquarters without getting killed," He explained.

"And we will be doing that how exactly?"

"Brooms." Was the violet haired witches excited response. Harry stared at her incredulously.

"Brooms?" He echoed.

"Yeah. Floos being watched, and apparition and portkeys can be tracked. Flying is the only way to go." Moody growled.

"And how exactly is flying out in the open across the country side a better idea? Why can't we just barrow Fawkes?" He asked flatly. Moody blinked while everyone else sans Remus looked shocked.

"Hadn't though of that," Moody finally muttered. "TONKS!" He barked turning to look at the violet haired witch. "Head back to headquarters and ask Albus if we can barrow Fawkes instead of flying Potter there." The witch, Tonks apparently, nodded rapidly and darted out the door. A few moments later the sharp crack of apparition heralded Tonks departure.

"Right, I'm going to go get my trunk." Harry said after a moment of awkward silence, Remus quickly volunteering to help.

"So how have you really been?" The old werewolf asked. Once they had entered the bedroom Harry shot him a smirk.

"Oh this and that. You really think I've been sitting on my ass all summer, Remus?" He asked, Remus chuckling.

"Of course not, but Harry, I have to say I've seen that grin before. Your mother always had it when she was about to do something particularly devious." Remus pointed out, a particularly ominous tone in his voice. Harry just stared him down without turning a hair.

"I have no idea what your talking about," He responded blandly. Remus snorted, unimpressed.

"Your a few decades to young to pull that on me cub, try again."

"Oh come on Remus, let me have my fun. I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing Dumbledore pulling his hair out in frustration when the fun starts." He answered with a grin. Remus eyed him wearily.

"Must be a doozy, Harry, just what have you got planned?"

"You'll see." Remus was prevented from arguing any further at the sound of Fawkes' singing down stairs.

"Well there's your ride I suppose." Remus said, sending him a look that promised a more thorough interrogation later.

X X X

Harry decided upon arrival, in a dark neighborhood after being consumed in a blaze of fire, that traveling by Phoenix was officially his favorite form of magical transport, being the only one that didn't send him to his ass on landing. Within a few moments a dozen sharp pops sounded and the rest of his guard arrived. Moody flicked his wand in several complicated motions, no doubt casting some kind of detection spells, whatever he found met his approval however.

Stalking over to Harry, who still had Fawkes perched on his shoulder, he roughly held out a piece of paper. "Quick, read it and concentrate on what it says." he growled. Harry took the paper, a bit confused, but obligingly read what it said.

_The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix_

_May be found at number 12 Grimmauld Place._

"Um...ok?" He asked uncertainly. The paper was abruptly snatched out his hands and burned.

"Concentrate on what you read boy! Look there!" The old Auror snapped, pointing at the spot between numbers 11 and 13. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when a building seemed to sprout from the ground between one place and the next. "Don't dawdle! We could be seen any minute! Inside now!" Harry glared before walking quickly up to the porch, Tonks opening the door with a grin.

"I see you made it in one piece!" she said brightly as Fawks launched himself off Harrys shoulder and flew inside. Moody growled and all but pushed Harry through the door, forcing Tonks to retreat or get knocked over.

"Hello Pup." Harry just about broke his neck he wiped it around so fast, his eyes locking onto the form of Sirius in an instant. A moment later he tackled his godfather in a hug knocking them both to the floor. Sirius laughed and hugged him back.

"Alright you lot, get up, its time for the meeting." Remus called with a chuckle as he finally arrived, Harry's trunk in hand. Harry sighed but got up, giving Sirius a hand as well.

"What meeting?" He asked. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Order of the Phoenix stuff. I'd let you come but unfortunately kids have been banned."

"Of course they have," He agreed drily, earning a smirk from Sirius.

"Hey mate!" Harry looked up and tried not to scowl when he saw Ron grinning down at him from the second floor landing.

"Hello Harry." Hermione added, appearing as well.

"Hello Mione," He answered, smiling

"Hey! What about me mate!" Ron called, annoyed at being ignored.

"Fuck off Ron." Was Harry's only response, he hadn't forgotten Ron's betrayal during the tournament and he wasn't about to let the jealous little bastard be his friend again anytime soon. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Come on Harry, we need to talk." Harry nodded and took his feather light trunk from Remus before darting up the stairs past Ron, who was steadily turning purple. Downstairs the others headed into the kitchen for their super secret meeting.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to send you any letters Harry. I did try but Dumbledore had all the bases covered," she said once the door was closed. Harry smiled wryly.

"Its alright, I had a busy summer so I wasn't to bored." Hermione stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

"How? They were guarding you night and day. How could you have gotten out of the house?" she asked. He smirked.

"This is me were talking about Hermione, you honestly think I couldn't sneak out if I wanted to?" He asked.

"That's the point! I was going to tell you about them, but you couldn't have known they were there already!" She argued

"They need better guards then because I knew they were there within a week." Hermione stared at him for a long moment before nodding.

"They are a bit idiotic, aren't they?" she agreed, making Harry laugh.

"Yeah, just a bit. As it is Dumbledore apparently forgot his guards aren't the only ones with an invisibility cloak, or the fact that the house has a back door." Hermione snickered.

"So where did you go?" She asked amused. Harry smirked.

"Diagon Alley. I had some things I needed to get."

"What are you up to Harry?" She demanded, grinning Harry gave her an innocent look.

"What are you talking about Hermione? I just wanted something new to read!" He argued. Hermione gave him a flat look. Harry sighed, turning serious.

"Promise not to tell anyone?" He asked. She frowned sharply at him.

"Of course not!" She snapped, outraged that he honestly thought he needed to ask her something like that! Harry smiled faintly.

"Sorry Mione, but this is big," He answered, "I found something that may help me get rid of Voldemort, but I'm going to have to leave for a while to figure it out."

"Wait a second. Why not tell them then? If it'll get rid of Voldemort they may actually make themselves useful for once!" Harry just shook his head.

"No, they would never let me do this Hermione. Dumbledore for one would never let me go somewhere out of his control. You know how he is." He argued. Hermione closed her eyes for a moment before sighing and nodding.

"True, so whats the big plan?" Harry popped his trunk open and pulled out the book that had changed everything and held it out.

"Page 217." He said quietly. Hermione hesitated for a moment before flipping the book open and beginning to read the brief entry about Snow Point Academy. It only took her a minute, but she stayed frozen staring at the page for almost five minutes after she had finished. Finally she looked up and considered him for another long moment.

"I think I see where your going with this." She finally said.

"Where else would teach something like that? I figure he used some kind of necromancy to keep himself alive and to come back the rest of the way. If all else fails I can just ask the professor about making sure people you kill stay dead," He explained. "That and the place probably teaches a lot more powerful magic as well. I need something with a bit more kick then reducto if I'm going to survive now that he's back." Hermione grumbled, annoyed.

"I hate it when you actually make sense Harry," She muttered darkly.

"Whys that?" He asked, amused.

"Because you always get yourself into trouble!I happen to like having a brother! I don't want you getting yourself killed!" She snapped. Harry hugged her.

"I'll be fine Mione." She sighed.

"Idiot," she muttered darkly. Harry just laughed. "So when are you planning on leaving and how are you going to avoid the order until the 10th?" She asked, getting back down to business.

"I'll leave on the 1st, around 2am or so, and catch a flight across the pond then make my way south. I'll be more difficult to track if I take the normal way," he answered easily. Hermione closed her eyes for a moment, an exasperated look on her face.

"Harry?" She asked drily.

"Um..yes?"

"Do you even have tickets?" She asked sweetly. Harry balked at the look she was giving him.

"Er..." She sighed.

"That's what I thought." She deadpanned.

"I was going to get them at the airport!" He squeak defensively. She just shook her head.

"What would you do without me, Harry?"

"Fail to get out of the country?" He asked brightly. Hermione face palmed. "Er...right, how do I get tickets then?" He asked, she snorted.

"Your lucky I found out about how to do that when I went to France last year."

"So?"

"You have an ID, right? Give it to me and I'll have my dad plot it out for you and get all the tickets." He all but tackled her in a hug again.

"Thanks Hermione!" She pried him off, looking annoyed.

X X X

_Later that night_

Harry was awoken later by a muttered silencio and petrificus totalus, he didn't freak out though, he recognized Sirius's voice. Honestly he was surprised the marauder had waited this long to kidnap him for that interrogation that Remus had promised.

So he waited, amused, as he was levitated out of his bedroom and down the hall to a staircase behind a door. A minute later he was dropped to the floor next to Buckbeak. With an internal smirk he twisted his magic and snapped the weak spells easily.

"Hey! No fair Pup!" Sirius squawked, outraged.

"Right, what do you two want?" He asked, ignoring Sirius's whining.

"Well, you've got us wondering with your hinting earlier, and we want to know what you're cooking up that would get Albus's nickers in a twist." Harry smirked.

"You're just going to have to wait like everyone else." He told them. Sirius gave him a wounded look while Remus laughed.

"Are you sure Harry?" He asked, amused.

"Yup, your going to have to suffer, but don't worry to much I'll explain after the fact alright?" Sirius and Remus exchanged a look before nodding.

"Alright. Just don't doing anything your going to regret."

"No worries."

"Alright then, time for the real reason we brought you here." Sirius grinned wickedly. "Remus?" he asked. Remus nodded solemnly and looked at Harry.

"Harry James Potter, son of Messers Prongs. With the completion of your animagus transformation and the agreement of Messers Padfoot and Moony, it has been decided that you shall be inducted into the exalted Marauders. Are you Harry James Potter prepared to take the oath of the Marauders, and take up the solemn duty therein?" Remus finished. Harry stared at them in shock for a moment, not quite comprehending what they were asking for a moment. After a moment later a frightening grin appeared on his face.

"I, Harry James Potter, accept." Remus and Sirius grinned before turning serious once more.

"Then hold out your wand and repeat after me." He said, and Harry realized with a shock that this was no joke oath, this was a real magically binding oath, but that didn't bother him.

Holding out his wand he grinned. Remus nodded and began. "Do you Harry James Potter, hence forth to be know to the Marauders as Talyn, swear on your life and magic to bring mischief and chaos wherever you may go, and help those who would do the same, bring amusement in times of darkness and strife? Do you swear to uphold the honor of the Marauders and to continue the legacy of chaos when you find those who are worthy? And finally, do you swear to have fun no matter how dark the world becomes?" Remus pronounced solemnly.

"I do." Harry stated and both wands flared with light, a coil of glowing golden light wrapping around both his and Remus's arms before sinking into the flesh. Harry couldn't keep the grin off his face as Remus lowered his wand and grinned.

"Welcome to the Marauders, Messers Talyn," They both said.

"Now for the moment of truth Pup, what will your first act as a Marauder be?" Asked Sirius. Harry looked thoughtful and chuckled softly as he thought of what he already had in the works.

"I think we should consider my current undertaking to be my first act of chaos and discord guys, its certainly spectacular, if I can pull it off anyways." Harry answered with a grin, the two looked at him intrigued.

"I know you said its going to be good before Pup, but just how big is this going to be?" Asked Sirius. Harry just laughed.

"You'll see! I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise."

"I don't think your going to get him to spill Padfoot, so you might as well stop asking already." Sirius pouted, making Remus roll his eyes. "Oh and Cub? One last thing before you head back to bed. Contrary to what everyone else thinks, the Marauder names aren't simple nicknames. Because its worked into the oath it truly is your name just as much as Harry is. That's why letters and things addressed to Moony and Padfoot can actually find us. If you wanted to you can even sign legal stuff as Talyn and its just as binding as if you put down Harry Potter."

Harry blinked, well, that certainly made things a lot easier. If he could legally go by Talyn then when he went to Snow Point no one would be able to just look at an enrollment list or something, not that he thought a place as secretive as Snow Point would ever let the ministry within a hundred miles of the school, let alone look at documentation.

"Nice." he agreed. They nodded.

"Right now, time for bed, Talyn."

"Hey!" He squawked, outraged as he was picked off the ground by a wordless spell from Moony and floated down the hall.

X X X

**August 30th**

As the days ticked down it took all of Harry's self control not to act like Moody, but only Hermione, Sirius, and Remus seemed to notice he was twitchier then normal. Hermione of course knew why and she was still waiting for word from her father. Hopefully he would get back to here sometime tonight, she needed to look over the route with Harry so he wouldn't get lost.

"Anything yet?" Harry asked, retreating to her room after lunch. She shook her head.

"Not yet. He'll get it Harry, don't worry. Planning a trip halfway across the planet takes a little research."

"I know but we're getting down to the wire here, I need to leave tomorrow night!"

"I know Harry, have you been working on that charm?" she asked. He nodded, exasperated but glad he could practice the charm none the less. The twins spying had revealed an interesting fact, as long as they were under the fidelius spell the underage magic detectors couldn't pick them up. Hermione had jumped on the loophole like a starving lion on a gazelle, and in the process saving him from another potential problem. Tracking spells. The charm he was learning would hopefully remove all tracking spells that might be on him.

A loud hoot distracted them a moment later as Hedwig winged into the room through the open window, a thick envelope in her claws. Harry all but snatched the letter out of the air when Hedwig dropped it on his head. "Great job girl!" he congratulated the tired owl. Hermione snagged the letter out of his hand and opened it up, pulling out several print outs and a note. Reading quickly she laughed.

"Your going to have to send dad a thank you note Harry, it looks like he pulled it off!" She picked up the print outs, looking them over carefully. "Alright it looks like your going to have to switch planes 5 times."

"Five?" Harry asked incredulously. She just shot him a look.

"They don't exactly have none stop flights from Heathrow to Ushuaia Argentina Harry. You have to hop around a bit. Be glad its only five, it could have been worse."

X X X

**August 31**

Harry waited until the ancient house had been silent for several hours before getting out of bed. He opened his trunk, pulling out the backpack that held the new trunk, now with books from the Black library as well. Harry had found some good spell books with Sirius's help to read at school, Sirius just didn't know that the school wasn't going to be Hogwarts, but that was alright he would learn in the morning.

Tossing his invisibility cloak over his shoulders he silenced his feet and crept out of the room, he didn't head out of the house immediately however, first he detoured to Hermione's room. The door had been left cracked to lessen noise, he had after all promised to say goodbye before he left. Creeping over to the bed he tapped Hermione on her shoulder, her eyes snapped open and he flipped the cloak over his shoulder so she could see him. "Well I'm off then. See ya?" he grinned as she hugged him.

"Good luck." she agreed with a smile. " I expect you to use that journal I got you, those things cost a lot."

"I will. I'll try to talk to you everyday, at least until I get there, but I don't know if those will work through the wards on this place."

"Excuses, excuses," she deadpanned, "Now get! You have four hours to get to the airport and catch your flight!" Harry nodded and quickly left the room, sneaking down the stairs and out the door. It wouldn't be until nearly 10:30 the next day that anyone realized Harry was gone, but by then he was already 5 hours away across the Atlantic

X X X


	4. Firework

**Edited Mar 6 2013**

**Chapter 4: Firework**

**September 1st - 3AM**

Moonlight glittered off the ocean below as the plane powered on to New York. Harry knew he should have been sleeping, but he had never seen the ocean before. He found even in the dark that he couldn't tear his eyes away from the endless black that stretched out below.

No doubt in a few hours the Order would be scrambling to find him, someone might even be smart enough to check the airports. Officially though Harry Potter had never gotten on a plane at Heathrow. His boarding pass and the ID card Hermione had transfigured for him at Grimmlaud (using his original for a template) both proclaimed him to be Talyn Ashton. He hadn't even bothered to change his appearance much. He wore jeans and a long sleeved black shirt under a dark gray wind breaker.

His hair had been grown out about a foot in a strand of trees outside of the airport, and subsequently thrown into a pony tail. Without his glasses and with the long hair he looked startlingly different. Hedwig hooted softly in the seat next to him, causing him to smile at her.

When Hagrid had first bought her he had been a bit startled at the paperwork that came with her, but it was meant for people who lived around muggles so they wouldn't get fined for having an owl without a permit. One of the papers was everything he needed to take her on the plane with him, the only down side was that she needed her own seat. With the sheer amount of money he had however that was no issue.

That and he had almost completely emptied his trust vault into the second room in his trunk the day before the Order picked him up, so money was not going to be a problem...for him anyways. Dumbles was going to get a nasty surprise when he tried to make a withdrawal.

X X X

**September 1st – 9AM**

Hermione double checked her trunk a faint smirk on her face, wondering just when the fireworks were going to start. She couldn't wait. Normally she hated chaos, but today she would make an exception since there was nothing like well deserved justice. Wiping the smirk off her face she dragged her trunk down the stairs, leaving it by the front door with Ron's. Heading into the kitchen she squeezed herself in between Ginny and Tonks and helped herself to bacon and scrambled eggs.

"Ron dear would you go wake Harry up? The poor boy must have stayed up all night reading again," Mrs. Weasley called to Ron.

"Whatever," he answered, grabbing two pieces of toast to munch on while he walked. Five minutes later he was back. He plopped back down in his spot without a word and dug back into his mountain of eggs and pancakes.

"Did you wake Harry up?" Mrs. Weasley asked brightly. Ron shrugged and tried to say something around a mouthful of pancake. "Don't talk with your mouth full Ronald!" she snapped. Ron blinked at her and swallowed.

"I said he wasn't in bed." Ron repeated. Miss Weasley frowned before smiling once more.

"He's probably just in the shower, he'll be down soon," she said before turning back to the oven. Hermione tried not to smile as she helped herself to more eggs.

**9:20 AM**

"Tonks could you go find Harry please?" Remus asked. Tonks, who had been using the hall mirror to pick a new hair color, jumped in surprise.

"Um...sure!" she agreed and darted upstairs to track down the errant boy-who-lived. Hermione, who had been listening, snickered internally not showing any of her mirth on her face. Damn they were slow on the uptake, but Remus appeared to be catching on that something was up at least.

Shaking her head she pulled a book out of her backpack and sat down in the kitchen to read. A small notebook soon joined the transfiguration book on the table, but only three words were scribbled in it before it went back in the bag again.

_'Here we go.'_

On a plane halfway across the Atlantic Talyn felt the journal in his pocket vibrate. Pulling it out he read what it said and smiled wickedly.

**9:35 AM**

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S NOT IN THE HOUSE?" Mrs. Weasley shrieked, making everyone in Grimlaud freeze. Tonks tried not to cringe at the screaming.

"I don't know! I can't find him anywhere!" she explained hurriedly. Mrs. Weasley stared at her, breathing hard. Within moments everyone still in the house had been conscripted to search the building top to bottom. Hermione, a worried expression fixed on her face, was happy to help Sirius search the attic.

**9:45 AM**

"SOMEONE FLOO DUMBLDORE!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked, once more making everyone cringe.

**9:50 AM**

"You are certain he's not there?" Dumbledore asked sharply. Charlie, his head in the fire place, nodded hurriedly.

"We searched the house top to bottom! He's gone." Dumbledore stared at him for a long moment, his mind chewing through every thing that could have happened to the boy. With the Fedilus in place kidnapping was out of the question, and the Marauders were still there so they hadn't taken him.. So then what on earth? Dumbledore shook his head, frowning heavily.

"I will be over shortly, I need to check the tracking charms." The redhead nodded and vanished from the fireplace. Dumbledore scowled. This was hardly the first time Harry had gone and disappeared into the night. He'd had to track the boy down twice before he came to Hogwarts and drag him back home. A few well placed obliviates and compulsion spells to stay in place, and everything was back to the way it needed to be.

If the boy wasn't in the house then he had either run again or was simply hiding somewhere. Getting out of his chair he walked over to the collection of silver devices, chiming and puffing away in the corner. He frowned as he looked them over more closely. The device meant to monitor all the tracking charms was nearly silent, registering only one very old spell.

"Damn it," he growled, earning trilling laughter from Fawkes, which he studiously ignored. He knew if he tried to get Fawkes to stop laughing at him the bird would set him on fire again. Contrary to what people thought the Phoenix was tied to the castle, not to him.

Somehow the boy must have removed the tracking charms, and the one still in place was old and unstable. But luckily it was still registering for the moment. Tapping the device with his wand a glowing blue globe appeared over it. Blinking brightly was a single red dot...which was in the middle of the Atlantic.

Dumbledore's eyebrow twitched and he was forced to close his eyes and take a deep calming breath, or risk destroying his own office. The boy must be on a plane, he thought grimly, studying where the dot seemed to be headed. Turning away he stalked over to the fire place and with a flash of green was gone.

**11:00 AM**

Talyn was tense as the plane came in to land in New York. Hermione hadn't had much time to write in the messenger journal, but she was able to scribble out a quick warning. Apparently they had missed a tracking charm, but according to Hermione Dumbledore said it was an old spell, and as a result it was very inaccurate and unstable. They knew he had to be on a plane, and that he was headed in the general direction of New York, but not his exact location. Unfortunately there was a good chance someone would still be waiting for him at the terminal.

A slight jolt as the plane touched down in America earned an annoyed hoot from Hedwig. Talyn eyed the terminal worriedly, the plane taxing to the gate. Even if Dumbledore was still tracking him it had only been an hour since they had realized he was gone. Could they have gotten international portkeys in that amount of time?

People began to stand up as the plane finally came to a halt and the stewardess opened the door. Talyn waited for a good number of people to begin getting off the plane before muscling his way into the aisle, his backpack on his shoulders and Hedwig's cage held carefully in front of him. He checked his surroundings quickly as he stepped out of the bridge and into the building. No one obviously badly dressed and no one wearing robes. It looked like he just might be getting lucky today. Just as the thought crossed his mind a hand landed heavily on his shoulder.

Talyn flinched hard and cursed when he nearly dropped Hedwig. Spinning around he glared hard, expecting to find an Order member of some kind. Instead what he saw was two men dressed in black suits. Talyn stared at them for a moment. "Um...hello?" he hazarded his free hand wrapped around his wand in his pocket, but deciding to give them a chance to not turn out to be Dumbledore lackeys.

"We're from the American Ministry and are currently looking for a run away from the UK. Being the only magical on the plane we need to check your identity to ensure that you're not the person we're looking for," one man said politely. Talyn blinked and blinked again, taken aback. Well, here goes nothing...let's see if Sirius was right about the name thing.

Pulling his ID out of his pocket he held it out. The second wizard took the ID while the first surreptitiously recast the notice-me-not that had kept Talyn from spotting them. He studied the ID for a moment before running his wand over the name on the little plastic card and then waving it in a complicated pattern at Talyn. He studied the card again and showed it to his partner who raised an eyebrow before smirking.

"Mr. Talyn? I'd like to thank you for your time. We have confirmed that you are not the person we are looking for, however the spell indicates that although your first name is indeed real your last name is false. Is there a particular reason for this?" Talyn blinked, taken aback by the grins on both their faces before he realized what was really going on.

They knew. They knew he was Harry, but his name was real thanks to the magic Remus used. So legally they had no reason to think he was anyone else, and last but not least apparently American wizards had a grudge against the British ministry. "My old last name holds some bad memories for me so I decide to change it a while back, will this be a problem?" he asked politely. The two smirked.

"No, not really sir. All you have to do to make your last name legal is tie it to your magic. It just tacks it onto your name and you can legally use any combination you want."

"Really? How do I add that then?" he asked, knowing that without a doubt the two Americans in front of him were having a ball with this.

"It's quite simple. All you need to do is, while holding your wand and channeling magic through it, pronounce your name as whatever you want after saying Verus Appello ," the first man explained. Talyn nodded and pulled out his wand.

"Verus Appello Talyn Ashton," he said while channeling the magic as the man had said. He felt a brief shift in his magic and got the distinct feeling that it had worked. "That good?" he asked. The man ran the spell again and smiled, handing him back his ID.

"Indeed it is, Mr. Ashton. Would you like me to remove the tracking charm that seems to be on you as well? Using them without authorization is illegal here."

"Oh, of course!" Talyn agreed happily. The first wizard waved his wand around him for a moment before pronouncing the charm canceled.

"Thank you."

"I'm glad we could help you out, please have a nice day." They both left smirking. Smiling Talyn shook his head trying not to laugh. Hermione was going to love this. Glancing up at the clock his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he realized he had five minutes to get across the massive terminal to his next flight.

"SHIT!" And he was gone, racing across the building.

The rest of the trip went much more quietly with the removal of the tracking charm. Hermione's commentary from the Order became steadily more animated as they panicked, he almost wished he could be there just to see the chaos!

At 2AM he switched planes for the third time in some city in South America called Lima and headed for Santiago where he switched once more, and for the last time. Finally almost 2 days after he had left the UK he landed in Ushuaia Argentina at 1PM on the 3rd of September. He may have traveled over 11,000 miles with Hermione's help, but the last 300 were up to him.

X X X

**Back with the Order**

Sirius had known something was up the moment Ron had said Harry wasn't in his room. The boy had said he had something big planned, but vanishing out of headquarters in the middle of the night and subsequently evading capture was really quite impressive.

Ron and Hermione had been hurriedly loaded onto the train, somehow managing to be on time. Shortly thereafter Dumbledore's one remaining tracking charm had failed only minutes after Harry's arrival in the US. The American Ministry had claimed that there had been only one flight that he could have been on, and after checking they determined that Harry Potter was not on the flight.

Sirius could smell the bullshit on that a mile away. 'Harry Potter' might not have been on the flight but was _anyone _magical on it? Smart pup. It wasn't until around midnight that he and Remus were able to escape the chaos still going on downstairs to talk about The Great Escape.

"So what do you think of the newest Marauder's first prank?" Remus asked. Sirius snickered.

"Oh, 10 out of 10 definitely." Remus nodded, grinning

"Did you see the look on Albus's face when the spell died?" he asked. Sirius cracked up.

"Hell yes! I think it even got a smile out of Snape!"

"He did seem to be enjoying the day's entertainment, didn't he?" Remus agreed with a laugh.

_Flashback_

_"So the americans are going to grab him when he gets off the plane?" Tonks asked Dumbledore nodded, the twinkle at full blast._

_"Indeed they will, we should have Mr. Potter back with us in time to get on the train with no trouble." Everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief, and the slivery device on the kitchen table continued to chime softly and show a red dot now in New York.  
"Any idea why he left?" Asked Bill curiously Dumbldore sighed tiredly._

_"I can only guess he is afraid now that Voldemort is back and wished to escape the coming war." Dumbledore tried to explain, the others all nodded in agreement, it seemed like a logical enough conclusion. They waited staring at the little red dot like house cats on the hunt for nearly 20 minutes before anything happened, then, the dot vanished. A moment of utter silence followed before every eye turned to Dumbledore. His eyes were no longer twinkling. Almost a minute passed when the fireplace suddenly flared green._

_"Dumbledore?" Barked an annoyed voice._

_"Ah! Mr. Jackson! I trust you were able to retrieve Mr. Potter successfully?" The headmaster asked sounding just as cheerful as ever even with the twinkle gone from his eyes, the man shrugged._

_"Unfortunately no. There was only one flight out of Heathrow today with anyone magical on it, we intercepted them on disembarkation but no one by the name of Harry Potter was on board. We are sorry we were unable to assist you. Perhaps the plane was a misdirection? And he is still in your country? We wish you good luck on the search! Goodbye Sir." With that the international call ended and silence once again reigned in the kitchen. Sirius and Remus exchanged looks before casting shield spells over themselves and the kids. barely a moment later every plate and cup in the room exploded sending shards of china everywhere._

_End flashback_

Sirius snorted. " I wonder when the last time Dumbles had accidental magic like that was?" He asked grinning and rolled over on his bed making something crinkle. With a frown he rolled away and dug under the blankets. Pulling his hand out revealed an envelope. The two exchanged looks before Remus tackled Sirius and they began fighting over who would get to read what was no doubt Harry's victory note.

"NO FAIR!" Sirius squawked as Remus sat on him and pried his fingers open to retrieve the now slightly battered envelop.

"Oh stop whining Padfoot!" he snickered, opening the letter. "Alright lets see what the cub has to say, hm?" he said and began to read the letter aloud.

_Dear Padfoot and Moony,_

_I hope you have enjoyed the morning's entertainment, I expect pensive memories when we next meet. I can only imagine the look on Dumbles' face when he realized I was gone! I hope as you read this letter I have so far evaded capture. Unfortunately this is the last contact your going to be having from me for a while. I think I've found a way to make sure Voldemort stays dead the next time someone manages to off the bastard, but Dumbles would never let me go somewhere outside his control, so I decided its high time I struck out on my own._

_I'm going to a school. I wont tell you which one or even a general area. I'll try to contact you come summer but I have no idea what their breaks are like, so classes may go all year. Hermione has a messenger journal I have the twin to so I should be able to receive messages through her, but the wards on the school might not allow that so we'll just have to wait and see._

_Wish me Luck,_

_Talyn_

_"_Well...you gotta give him credit for pulling it off," Remus said after a moment of silence.

"The look on his _face!_" Sirius sniggered again.

X X X

**September 3rd**

Relaxing outside a small cafe the morning after his arrival, the scent of the ocean on the breeze, he had to say that for now at least life wasn't too bad. Pulling out a book on warding he set about figuring out how to make sure his stuff remained unharmed at Snow Point. In 7 days he would be slogging through the wilderness and he wouldn't have time for reading.

It was almost noon before anything noteworthy happened, he was still sitting at his little table, now with a turkey sandwich and a can of coke. He had tried valiantly to pretend that he'd actually had the drink before, but the Dursleys had never allowed him anything but water, and they didn't have pop in the wizarding world. Still. Coke = delicious, even if he had made the mistake of burping and breathing out through his nose.

Talyn was shaken out of his thoughts a few minutes later when two people approached his table. He eyed them warily, his right hand going into his pocket and wrapping around his wand. A girl looking to be about 17 with black hair and golden eyes was rolling her eyes at her friend and trying to twist her hand loose from his grip. The grinning 18 year old was having none of that and continued to drag her over to Talyn's table.

"Hey!" he declared, still smiling, his spiky black hair sticking up in a thousand directions. "I'm Soren! This is -"

"Kira, and if you don't let go of me I'm going to bite you!" the girl snapped, showing off long fangs. Soren dropped her hand like it was a branding iron and backed away, holding his hands up in surrender.

"Um...Kira, lets talk about this?" he asked hopefully. "I'm out of anti venom!" She just smirked.

"Then maybe you shouldn't be giving me reasons to take a chunk out of you, should you?" she countered. Talyn watched the argument blankly as they apparently forgot he was there.

"Um...who the hell are you guys?" he asked drily. They blinked and looked at him startled.

"Oh hell, sorry!" the girl answered, apologetic. "I'm Kira, and this moron is Soren," she explained.

"Er...hi? I'm Talyn," he answered hesitantly.

"Its nice to meet you!" Kira agreed before Soren cut in.

"Are you headed to Snow Point too?" Talyn stared at him in surprise for a long moment while Kira face palmed.

"Idiot," she muttered before looking over at Talyn. "Don't let him fool you, he does have a brain, but I'm pretty sure it has an intermittent notice-me-not charm on it." Talyn nodded slowly, not quite sure what to make of the pair in front of him.

"Ok? So...you guys are going to Snow Point as well then?" he asked. They both nodded.

"Yup! We've been looking for people to team up with for the trip, and we sensed you had magic so we decided to ask!" Soren explained.

"Well...I don't see why not," he agreed after a moment of thought. After all, these two seemed to know what they were in for, and having a few friends wouldn't be a bad idea if Snow Point was half as violent as it had been implied.

X X X


	5. Adventure of the Skies

Chapter 5

Quetzal – **(Lies! Her name is Que! Address her as such! XD) **hello sorry for the delay, but my weekend was not a good one for writing. My cat Cinders died. I've had him for almost 15 years since I was 6. I don't remember ever not having him. A moment of silence please for the best cat ever.

**Michee - *holds up fish-shaped candle in memory* Cinders...you will be missed.**

Onto things for this story. I had a thought while I was writing this chapter and after double checking my facts found that I need to go back and correct some details last chapter. Being from the US it didn't occur to me right off the bat that Ushuaia Argentina is far enough south to have really weird sun rise and set times. So while saying that Talyn **(Please keep in mind Harry is now known as Talyn.) **was at a cafe in the morning is fine, I failed to mention that at 10 am the sun would be setting, and would later rise around 11pm. I tried to make that a bit more noticeable this chapter and will go back and correct the last one in a day or two. In light of this next to those little time markers I use sometimes will be a night or day note partly for you and partly so I don't forget if its light out of not while I'm writing ok?

Thanks to cooldude111 for my 300th alert

And to momocolady for my 100th review

**_Update! hello i need some help here i'm getting conflicting info from readers about the night day times in this. i know i have readers from Argentina so if one of them could contact me i would appreciate it. Better to have info from real people then believe a computer program._**

**_update 2 - after a bit more double checking i have figured out i left a few things out when entering the cordinets into the program i use to calculate the night and day. i am currently rewriting the chapter to not include my stupidity. The chapter shouldn't change to much but i will have to add a short scene of them camping for the night and the second fight here with happen the next day rather then on the same one. it shouldn't screw to many things up so don't worry overly much. update will be up shortly  
_**

**_update 3 - a few edits and some new details on things that weren't quite clear enough, nothing to serious_**

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

**Adventure of the Skies - Epic Score**

And

**Dragon Rider - Two Steps From Hell**

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Sep - 3rd Noon**

"Um, don't take this the wrong way, but are you human?" Talyn asked hesitantly. Kira looked at him with a raised eyebrow, her odd gold eyes glinting dangerously. Both of the new comers had claimed seats at his little table and ordered their own lunches. Kira was leaning back in her chair her white leather jacket slung over the back of her chair leaving her in only a black t-shirt and blue jeans.

"Got a problem if I'm not?" she drawled, Soren studying him with narrowed eyes as well. Talyn shook his head rapidly in denial.

"No! I just saw those fangs you had and was curious," he defended. Kira stared at him for a long moment before smiling.

"Well, in that case, I'll refrain from ripping off your arms and legs and dropping you in the bay...and yes, we both aren't human. I'm a Lamia and Soren's a -"

"DRAKON!" Soren cut in excitedly all but bouncing in place. Talyn just blinked at them in confusion.

"Um...what?" Kira sighed and smacked Soren over the head.

"Soren is a Drakon, as he said. That means he's a dragon that can turn into a human, if he wants too."

"Yeah! Not a human that can turn into a dragon! A dragon that can turn into a human! There is a difference," Soren cut in, causing Kira to hit him again.

"As I was saying!" she snapped. " Drakons are personality wise much like other dragons. Territorial, over excitable, and with a brain the size of a pea."

"OI!" Soren squawked. Talyn snickered quietly. These two had obviously had known each other for a very long time to be able to heckle each other like this with no real anger.

"And as I said I'm a Lamia, which is a kind of snake," she explained. "We are always female and are considered the Empresses of Serpents. In my snake form I stay a human from the waist up, but my legs turn into a tail and my human half gains white scales like my snake half. I am also extremely venomous," she grinned, showing off her fangs once more.

"So be careful, she has no problem biting people who piss her off!" Soren agreed. Kira glared at him. Talyn looked thoughtful for a moment before deciding there couldn't really be any harm, and may very well be funny as hell.

_"A kind of snake?"_ he hissed. _"Its very nice to meet you Kira."_ The two were staring at him with open mouths.

"Sweet!" Soren was grinning again. "I thought you were human! What are you then?" he asked. Kira was still blinking at him in surprise.

"Um...I AM human, I've just always been able to talk to snakes," he disagreed. Kira frowned heavily.

"I doubt that," she said finally. "A human CAN'T make the sounds necessary to speak serpent, the larynx isn't shaped right. So to speak it you HAVE to be, at least in part, not human." Talyn stared at her uncertainly.

"I think I would know if I wasn't human," he said slowly. The other two exchanged looks.

"Not necessarily. You would be amazed at the amount of weird shit that can happen with crossbreeds. How old are you again?" Soren asked seriously. Talyn was beginning to think that maybe revealing his ability was a bad idea, but answered all the same.

"16, and I'm telling you, I'm human," he answered. Kira made a humming noise in thought while Soren looked expectantly at her.

"Well, nothing comes to mind. There aren't really any snake hybrids that do the sudden changeover at 18, and none that I know of would only show signs with speech."

"Told you," Talyn deadpanned. Kira just shook her head, grinning.

"No such luck Talyn, that just means I have to actually consult a book!" she taunted. Talyn let his head fall to the table with a thud while Soren laughed.(1)

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

**Sep. 7th 8AM**

Chaos was the only word he could use to describe his week since he had met Kira and Soren. The Drakon never stopped pissing her off and was lucky he had gone and brewed more of that anti-venom when he proved her threat of biting people who pissed her off very true.

Apparently the two had grown up together in a city hidden in the Rocky Mountains. Although many magical creatures had joined the 20th century and lived together in hidden cities they still stayed true to their natures, it was a very good thing he had met them or he would have never learned the system for knowing what someone was and how to avoid problems.

Soren and Kira both wore small silver bracelets with different colored stones in them. Kira's were bright green with yellow and white. This apparently translated as venomous, easily angered, and shape-shifter. Green for venom,yellow for moderate danger, and white for shape-shifter.

Soren's were yellow and white. Yellow once more for moderately dangerous and the white a shape-shifter. Talyn shook his head at the explanation.

"Seems a little too much like that bullshit about vampires and werewolves back in Europe having to be registered," he disagreed. Soren just shook his head.

"I know what you mean, but honestly the cities would never survive without the system, there's just too many people for any one person to know what everybody is and who not to piss off if they want their head to stay attached." Kira nodded.

"The council put the system in place about 200 years ago and fatalities in the cities dropped almost 40 percent within a decade. We learn the system when we're little so we don't even really think about it anymore." Talyn just stared at her blankly for a moment.

"Any chance I could get a color key for this?" he asked. Soren rolled his eyes while Kira pulled out a piece of paper and started scribbling.

"Its not that difficult! Light blue is non violent, yellow is moderately dangerous, orange is very dangerous, and black is do not, under any circumstances, fuck with. Then you've got the secondary colors which is a warning as to what you should expect. Green is poisonous, white is shape shifter, any kind of shape shifter, and purple means there's a good chance they'll try and eat you. That's not all but those are the important ones," Soren finished. Kira snorted and held out the list she had been writing. Talyn snagged it immediately and glanced down at the list.

Light Blue - non violent

Yellow - moderate danger

Orange - high danger

Black - extremely dangerous

Green - poison

White – shape shifter

Purple - predators

Talyn shook his head, he could see how this could be useful with a lot of different species living together, but it still just seemed odd.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

**Sep 10th Noon**

Waiting for noon had to be the most stressful experience he had ever dealt with, and this included standing in that damn tent waiting to face off against a pissed off dragon. He was sitting at a table outside the same cafe he had first met his two new friends as they waited tensely. Soren was slowly shredding a napkin into tiny pieces and Kira was double checking the supplies they had stuffed into his backpack. Talyn had been rather embarrassed to realize he hadn't even thought of how he was going to survive in the snowy mountains for two days. Luckily Kira had them all covered there, she had her own shrunken trunk now safely stored in his backpack. Among other things it held a muggle tent and enough food to keep them out of trouble for a few days.

"Are you here for the test?" a voice demanded sharply. Talyn flinched hard while Kira shrieked and fell over. Soren's eyes had gone from a normal human brown to an almost electric blue with slit pupils, all the while baring sharp fangs.

All three turned to glare at the man who had sneaked up on them. He was tall with sandy colored hair and amber eyes. He smirked at them. "Might want to work on that reaction time, kits," he drawled, eyes glinting with amusement as they recovered.

"Yes, we are taking the test," Talyn grounded out, trying to resist the urge to hex someone no doubt much more powerful than him. The bastard knew it too and just smirked infuriatingly at him.

"All three of you?" he asked. They all nodded, still glaring daggers. "Well then, welcome to what is likely to be the last two days of your life! Although many people know about the fact that about a third of students die at Snow Point, one way or another, it is a lesser known fact that only about a 4th of those who _attempt_ to make it there actually do!" The three exchanged grim looks. "Still want to try?" he asked tauntingly.

"Yes," Soren growled, Kira and Talyn nodding in agreement. The man looked at them appraisingly for a moment before chuckling.

"Alright then, here are the rules. There aren't many of them, but they are iron clad. If you break them we WILL know. One, you may not use a broom. Two, you may not steal a boat from the locals, buying one or bringing your own is allowed. Three, you may not travel in groups larger then 4. Four, teleportation of any kind is not allowed. And five, you must reach the school by noon on the 12th to be accepted." He considered them with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you understand the rules?" he asked. They nodded. He smiled and reached into his pocket, pulling out three small, bronze compasses. "Then I'm pleased to give you these." They each took a compass, looking them over. On the cover was a detailed engraving of a compass rose overlaid with a cursive S. Written around the edge were the words 'endure the storm, and find your way.' "The compass will always point towards the school," the man explained. "All you need to do is follow it until you reach the school, you'll know when you get there." With that he disappeared with a sharp crack of apparition. They were silent for a long moment before Kira finally spoke.

"The next time I see that guy I'm biting him," she said flatly. Soren and Talyn both nodded.

"Ditto," they both said before flipping their compasses open. The dial inside was silver, the tiny degree markings also in silver. Currently the blue tipped end, labeled with an N, was pointing south.

"Well then, I think we ought to get this show on the road," Soren said with a grin.

Xxxxxxxxx

**2PM**

"So how are we going to do this? Just walk the whole way there?" Soren drawled, almost two hours later.

"Hardly. We're going to fly. We just need to get far enough away so the normals in town can't possibly see us and find a clearing to take off in." Talyn answered while ducking another swipe from Hedwig who seemed to have decided his new hair style needed to die. Kira and Soren stared at him, confused.

"Okay, Soren can fly on his own, but they said no brooms so how the hell are the two of us getting there? You didn't think Soren's dragon form can carry all of us, did you? He's the size of a dog!" Talyn blinked in surprise.

"Seriously? The size of a dog?"

"Well, somewhat. His body is, he's mostly tail and wings so he looks bigger than he really is. Please tell me that wasn't really your plan?" she asked hopefully.

"Hardly. I figured he could fly himself and I could carry you!" They both stared at him.

"You can fly?" they both asked simultaneously. He grinned and rather than explain twisted his magic into the change he'd been practicing. He was down to under 30 seconds now. Soren and Kira stared at the winged tiger now sitting where he had been moments before.

"YOU'RE A BLUE TIGER?!" Kira screeched. Talyn laid his pointed ears back in pain and glared at her, she winced. "Sorry." He just snorted and scratched something in the dirt with a claw. Soren, who was closest, leaned over to try and read Talyn's message.

"Your handwriting is terrible," he announced after several seconds, earning a snicker out of Kira and a low growl from Talyn. "He says he's an animagus," he finally explained, rather hurriedly when Talyn barred fangs as long as his hand at him.

"Right, I think you are big enough to carry me and our supplies," Kira agreed thoughtfully. "But I doubt that's going to let us avoid all the challenges here. We have to stay alert," she continued. The guys both nodded. Soren's eyes glowed the same blue they had back at the cafe, then between one moment and the next a small wippy looking dragon with bright blue scales stood in the teens place.

Soren was about 15 feet, snout to tail, with equally long wings - but like Kira had said his body was only about the size of a large dog. Talyn stood up and waited while Kira clambered onto his back just behind his wings. "If you drop me I will haunt you, got it?" she told him, brightly patting his ears. Talyn wondered if he should have practiced carrying people before they tried this right now. Flying was itself not to difficult, but take off with a passenger was bound to be tricky. Hedwig hooted and flew past him, he glanced at the direction she was going and smiled faintly, of course she would spot the best take off point.

It was the direction with the fewest things to crash into if he couldn't gain altitude fast enough, honestly he hadn't thought of that potential problem, it was a good thing he had her she had been the one to teach him to fly he thought amused and spread his dark wings out before darting across the field. Kira clung to his back tightly while he tried to gain some momentum, then with one hard flap he launched himself skyward. It was a good thing he had been able to practice flying in the week they had been waiting or he probably would have tried flapping his wings like a crazed chicken when he didn't immediately gain altitude. Instead, skimming the grass, he just kept pumping his wings hard, going for power rather then speed.

Finally he cleared the trees, circling the clearing to gain more height before setting his wings to glide for a moment while he tried to get his breath back. Soren swooped by, screeching at him, having had no trouble taking off. It was hard to understand the dragon, but he was indeed close enough to get the gist of it. He bared his fangs at the tiny darting irritation, wordlessly promising pain if he didn't stop flying into his face.

Soren did a very good imitation of wily coyote in midair, rowing his wings to keep himself from flying by Talyn's head again, and managed to completely stall and plummeted almost 30 feet before catching himself again. Kira was practically cackling on his back. "And me without my camera!" she sniggered. Soren hissed at her, but she just stuck her tongue out at him.

Talyn shook his head and concentrated on gaining more altitude while Hedwig flew just ahead and above him. Flying with a passenger wasn't nearly as difficult as he'd thought it would be, but Kira was no feather, and he had a feeling it was going to be like carrying a sack of bricks around before too long. Not that he would tell her that, he wasn't sure Soren would let him borrow any of that anti venom after snapping at him like he had.

Xxxxxxx

"_Are we there yet?"_ Soren hissed buzzing Talyn's head trying the animagus's last thread of patience, he had taken up dive bombing him again after Hedwig the terrible had flown off to hunt. He wasn't worried about loosing her, she could find him almost anywhere.

"NO!" Kira snarled back, pulling out her wand and shooting a yellow spell he didn't know at the darting dragon. Talyn sighed and stretched his wings out to their furthest extent to catch the slightest thermal and locked them into a glide.

He had been right about carrying Kira, the Lamia was beginning to weigh a ton. Glancing tiredly at the ground he almost didn't catch it, but years of spotting tiny discrepancies to find the snitch in Quidditch, and avoid the bludgers, allowed him to see it.

The shadows on the mountain below them. There should be two, but there were four. Making a split second decision he roared and folded his left wing almost completely. Kira screamed, clinging to his back as he rolled to the left and dropped.

His maneuver hadn't been a second too slow as talons as long as his arm cut through the space he had occupied a moment before. He risked a look behind him as he dropped away, trying to figure out what had attacked him. It took him a second to comprehend what he was looking at, but once he did he snapped his wings open and executed another vicious turn to the right, this time to avoid another slash.

Eagles. Eagles the size of fighter jets. They were pure silver with black beaks and talons and bright golden eyes. Soren had dove at the same time he had, but hadn't been quite fast enough, and was currently spiraling towards the ground between the two peaks they'd been flying between, with a large tear in his right wing. He wasn't in any danger of crashing, but staying in the air would be impossible. Unfortunately this left both of the eagles with only one airborne target as Soren disappeared into the cover of the trees below.

"THOSE ARE FUCKING ROCS!" Kira yelled at him over the howling winds as he blew between two trees, trying to lose the one on his tail. Talyn thought hard, a Roc? Weren't those giant eagles the size of a 747 or something? These were big, but they weren't _that big_.

Apparently the fish tale effect had stuck again, and so the bird got bigger with every retelling. Still, fighter jet sized eagles were nothing to laugh at. Talyn was torn out of his thoughts a moment later by the sudden appearance of the second Roc in front of him.

Pulling a trick out of his Quidditch play book he barrel rolled under it and bit at its tail as he went by. His fangs failed to find purchase in flesh though and all he came away with was a mouth full of feathers. The Roc screamed and Talyn flinched, coming out of the roll sloppily, one of his primaries clipping a tree and snapping off.

Pain stabbed down his wing, the feathers weren't like a human's hair or something like that. Some were fed by a vein as they were still growing, and snapping it off was not only painful but dangerous. The broken feather bleed far more then a simple cut would. Kira cursed and tried to aim a spell at the wing, but his continued flapping and wrenching turns threw off her aim. She finally got her chance as he arced into a wide turn, wings still, as he banked hard. The light green spell connected and almost immediately clotted the blood flowing from the broken feather.

Kira had taken a little to long with her spell though and he was dizzy from blood loss. The first Roc screeched behind him, snapping at his tail. He dove, trying to ignore the burning pain in his wing muscles. He wasn't used to flying this much and he was tiring to fast. Banking again he climbed this time, flapping hard and groaning in pain as the broken feather bent with every stroke. He powered upward, the Roc's circling up behind him.

"TALYN! YOU HAVE TO LAND!" Kira yelled over the wind, shooting spells behind them at the Roc's now that she could actually aim. Kira's sudden scream a moment later was almost too late. Pain tore through his back as a much smaller, more white colored Roc slashed at him as it dove. He roared in pain and folded his wings, dropping though the air and past the two adults. One tried to bite him as he fell past it but he twisted out of reach and bit down on its wing, tearing out another mouthful of feathers.

The Roc screeched and banked away, allowing him to slip through the tangled branches of the valley's forest below. He would have broken his neck if not for Kira's rapidly cast spell. The effect was similar to Aresto Momentum and he suddenly felt like he was dropping through molasses. His paws hit the ground and he took two running steps before all but collapsing to the ground, breathing hard.

The two Roc's and their fledgling screeched above the trees, but they couldn't get a clear shot through the branches and wouldn't try to attack on the ground even if they were bigger. Kira clambered off his back, swearing and casting spells on his back. "Fucking little bastard! I should have known they would have a chick around at this time of the year!" she cursed while casting. A few minutes later Soren came crashing through the trees, out of breath and bleeding sluggishly from his right arm.

"SHIT! Talyn, you okay?" he asked. Talyn gave him a distinctly malevolent look out of the corner of his eye and bared his fangs. Soren winced. "Okay! Stupid question!" he agreed and helped Kira heal his back over. Talyn sighed and made a face, realizing he still had a mouth full of feathers before he spat them out. Kira glanced over from where she was now checking his broken feather.

"You should keep those, there's a lot of things you can do with Roc feathers," she told him before casting a low power severing charm at the last bit of broken shaft holding the outer part of the broken feather to his wing. "You could do some interesting stuff with this too," she added while holding up the two feet of nearly black feather.

"So...what are we going to do now? I really don't think taking off again would be a good idea," Soren cut in. Kira and Talyn shared a frown as she cast a numbing charm on the wing tip before yanking the shaft of the feather out.

"Well, we're going to have to take off again at some point unless you want to hike over the mountains," she answered, sealing the bleeding wing up with a few careful spells. Eying her handy work for a minute she nodded. "Right, you can change back now. Your arm and back is probably going to hurt like hell for a while, but you should be fine. I'm not the best healer, but you won't bleed out now at least. You should get it checked out when we get to school." Talyn nodded and focused on changing back to human form. Nearly five minutes later he was cradling an aching hand and swearing. Soren snorted.

"I suppose you forgot to mention that shifting injuries around like that makes them hurt worse?" he asked. Kira shrugged.

"I told him it would hurt," she answered.

"A little warning about making it worse would have been nice," he growled. Kira rolled her eyes.

"Big baby," she muttered, picking her bag up off the ground. "Now come on, we don't have time to sit around and whine. We should head for the next valley before we take off again. Those Rocs will have a massive range, but getting out of this valley should give us enough breathing room to fly out of here."

Xxxxxxxxx

"Well at least it's kinda nice out," Talyn pointed out two hours later. Soren and Kira turned to stare at him incredulously. It was cold and misty down in the valley, and Talyn seemed to be thriving even with his injuries.

"What?" he asked, confused. Soren shook his head.

"You're nuts," he deadpanned. Kira nodded as Talyn blinked, nonplussed.

"Now who's the big baby?" he asked, moving past them and down the hill. They had moved out of the valley they'd crashed in about a half an hour before, and now all they needed to find was a clearing to take off.

Talyn sighed in relief when he realized the trees were starting to thin out. Up ahead they ended and a snowy mountain side stretched out, the mountain side to their left was riddled with icy caves. A sharp cliff rose up to their right, almost 10 meters high. Streams of melt water poured out of two of them in a brilliant waterfall. He paused at the tree line to admire the sight for a moment. A shifting shadow in one of the caves made him tense.

"Dammit," he muttered. The other two froze, glancing around.

"What is it?" Kira hissed quietly, looking around warily.

"The smaller cave next to the waterfall, the shadow in the entrance shifted," he answered quietly. Soren stared hard at the opening, his eyes their bright draconic blue.

"Oh...shit," he whispered, a sudden look of horror on his face.

"What?"

"I can see farther than you two," he answered squeakily, edging backwards into the sparse trees.

"So what the hell is over there?" Kira demanded sharply.

"Chimera," he answered blandly. Utter silence answered this announcement before both Talyn and Kira turned to stare at the cave in open mouthed shock.

"I know they don't want a lot of people to make it to school, but isn't that a bit excessive?" Kira asked as they all edged back into the woods.

"I don't think they know the meaning of the word," Talyn snarked. Finding a chimera of all things was not something that happened by chance. They were constructs, magical creatures put together and given life by the maker. You didn't just _find a_ chimera, someone had left it here. Three guesses who.

"So... Ideas?" Talyn asked after a few moments.

"We're going to have to go back and find a way around," Kira announced grimly, already turning to head back the way they came.

"We don't have time for that!" Soren snapped. "We have to find a way through here, or we'll never make it in time!"

"Just how fast are these things?" Talyn asked. The other two snorted.

"Fast enough that it'll block that trail before we can run past, and not all Chimera's have the same abilities. Most breath fire like a dragon, but I head of one that could make a cloud of poison like a Nundu. There's no telling what it's capable of!" Soren answered. Kira nodded.

"So what do we have-"

"FUCK! DOWN!" Talyn yelled, spotting a massive fireball heading their way form the cave. The roaring ball of flame tore past them, incinerating several trees. Talyn and Soren were knocked to the left while Kira went right. One half-burned tree groaned before collapsing on the two boys,trapping them under a mess of tangled and charred branches.

Kira staggered to her feet, cursing, and looked back towards the cave. She blanched, seeing the monstrous creature charging down the path. It had the body of a lion with talons like an eagle's and a head like a crocodile's, and a massive frill of bright purple spines around its neck and down its back. A long snake like tail ended in a, no doubt, poisonous spike.

There was no time to think of a spell that would work on a mostly magic proof creature, but that didn't mean she was defenseless. In the seconds it took for the chimera to cross the distance between the trees and the cave she had changed. Ten feet of white scaled tail cracked across the chimera's head as it came into range, knocking it to the left with it's spines failing to puncture the hard scales.

A pattern in gold, like a diamondback rattle snake, decorated the white scales. Kira's, previously tan skin, had paled to the same stark white and made her black hair stand out sharply. She hissed angrily, bearing her fangs at the Chimera as it clambered to its feet.

Lunging forward the razor sharp claws on her hands tore a furrow across its face as she wrapped the end of her tail around one of it's hind feet and yanked it out from under it. The chimera stumbled but didn't fall this time, lashing out with its head. It's jaws snapped shut only inches from her shoulder as she twisted away.

Coiling her tail under her she lunged again, trying to get a clear chance to bite - not much could survive a Lamia's venom. The sudden noise and cloud of dust and rock startled her when the ground behind the chimera suddenly exploded. She knew it had to be the guys, but couldn't risk taking her eyes off the snapping jaws for even a moment to check.

Soren had in fact managed to free himself enough to throw a curse at the chimera, aiming for the ground knowing that the magic would just wash off the monster if he tried to hit it. Talyn cursed and sent a cutting curse at the branches, slashing them into kindling.

"SHIT! We have to get over there!" he growled. Soren snagged his shoulder before he could race off to the rescue.

"You can't just jump in there you fucking idiot!" he snarled. Talyn blinked, shocked at the snarl. "Did you even look at the fight? If you try to jump in there you be just as likely to get hit by her as the damn chimera!"

"What the hell are we supposed to do then?" he demanded.

"Anything explosive you've got, and aim for the ground. Most magic won't work on it directly, but holes in the ground are damn inconvenient, even for something like that!" Talyn nodded and started casting a blasting hex he'd only learned last week while they worked their way around the fight and down the path.

The cascade of explosion only forced the chimera back a few feet, but that was all Kira needed to break away and slither down the trail, darting past the cave and around the bend. The two tore after her.

Nearly a mile further down the path they finally allowed themselves to stop running. Kira was grinning like a loon. "Did you see that! I just fought a damn CHIMERA! THAT WAS AWESOME!" she cheered. Talyn and Soren both looked at her like she was nuts.

"Th-that...was NOT awesome," Soren gasped out, still breathing hard from their sprint. A roar resounded down the trail, making them all freeze. As one the group looked back up the trial.

"Uh...I think we should go now," Talyn said after a moment.

"That sounds like a really good idea. Lets get the fuck out of here before it decides to come after us," Soren agreed. Kira sniggered, still smirking.

"Want to try flying again? There's enough room to take off here." Talyn and Soren snorted.

"If it gets us away from that thing I don't care WHAT we do," Talyn agreed, changing even as Kira shifted back to her human form and climbed aboard. Soren was a blue streak as he shot skywards.

Talyn glanced at his damaged wing and gave an experimental flap. It didn't hurt, but he wasn't sure how the missing primary feather was going to affect his flying. Taking a running takeoff like before he slowly climbed skyward, leaving the chimera far behind. When Hedwig finally returned an hour later, she spotted the missing feather near instantly, and proceeded to screech and snap at him her tirade lasting for almost half an hour. Talyn wasn't about to tell her about the Chimera, she was pissed enough as it was.

Across the ocean to the south over a dozen people were watching a large, faintly glowing three-dimensional map on a table. It had been temporarily zoomed in on the battle. "Hm...not bad. Most would have never even managed to survive that first attack," someone commented. The woman seated at the head of the table only made a humming noise as the others discussed the progress of the various individuals and groups.

"Perhaps," was the woman's only answer. Someone chuckled slightly before speaking.

"Its nice to see a few groups realized that just because they can't use a broom doesn't mean they can't fly another way." The other laughed as well.

"True, but they're usually not brave enough to try and head straight through when they do try flying. I don't think anybody has made it past that chimera in 40 years."

"It can fly, right?" asked another, the man nodded.

"Yup. It's a hell of a lot faster in the air than on the ground too."

"Lucky brats."

"How many have died so far?" the woman asked finally.

"We had 103 to begin with, 23 are dead so far and another 36 have turned back," a short man with bright violet eyes answered.

"41 left then. Better than usual," she commented. The other nodded as she studied the three fliers already nearing the coast before smirking slightly. "Well then, let's see if we can't weed a few more out." Although she made no visible move, the sky in the model began to darken slightly as the atmosphere was thrown just slightly out of balance over the ocean.

In a few hours a blizzard would be roaring over the water and they would see just how many were brave enough to fight their way though the storm. Those that tried to wait it out would find out just how many of the creatures that prowled the forest liked the cover of wind and snow to hunt.

The storm was still out of sight and over the horizon when the three teens landed just a little inland around sunset. "We should rest here for now and try to cross tomorrow," Soren commented, stretching out his tired arms. Talyn groaned in agreement, almost nodding off where he sat on a boulder. Kira was moving stiffly as well as she unpacked a tent from her own shrunken trunk. Apparently bitch slapping that chimera with her tail hadn't been as painless as it had looked, he wouldn't be surprised if her right side was one massive bruise in the morning.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Quetzal - and theres chapter 5! 6000 words this is my longest chapter ever! **(Actually there is 5,910, not counting the author/beta notes of course.)**

Keep this in mind but don't worry about it Talyn won't be becoming a creature as your probably thinking of it and it won't come back up for a while. ( and just so were clear there will be no destined mate bullshit or romanic **(Romantic? What's romanic? A romance maniac? Good! We don't need that crap! XD)** stuff in this.) **(To be fair, when he commented that he would know if he wasn't human, he did at one time say he would know if he was speaking another language too. Look how that turned out. XD)**

This is just something that I wanted to point out that will most likely become more apparent later. Tamryn is NOT an idiot, he's got a lot in common with the twins personality wise.

I actually forgot about poor Hedwig in the first draft of this chapter! I had to go through and add her back in, so if her parts seemed a little choppy thats why.

**Michee - . So many commas to add...so sick of commas now... Oh! I was gonna say something important...but...I so totally forgot... Hm. I know it was something to do with the story, and it was important! /shrug Oh well! I'm sure it wasn't ****_that _****important...right?**


	6. Hold It Steady

Quetzal – **(She lies! Her name is Que! XD) **I have given in to popular opinion and changed Kirasa and Tamryn's names to Kira and Soren.

**Michee – Oh thank God! I mean, Kirasa was fine, but spellchecking Tamryn every second? And getting Tamryn and Talyn confused all the time! It drove me crazy! Soren I can remember! Woo!**

Thanks to The Challenge Master for the 400 alert

Thanks to BlackMalstorm for the 200th favorite

_Italics = Parsletongue_

**Bold = Mental Communication (or goofy and random notes from the beta. XD)**

**UPDATE! there is now a poll on my profile go check it out!  
**

Xxxxxxxxx

Path to Darkness - epic score

and

Hold It Steady - epic score

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_"41 left then. Better than normal," she commented. The others nodded as she studied the three fliers already nearing the coast before smirking slightly. "Well then, let's see if we can't weed a few more out." Although she made no visible move, the sky in the model began to darken as the atmosphere was thrown just slightly out of balance over the ocean. In a few hours a blizzard would be roaring over the water and they would see just how many were brave enough to fight their way though the storm. Those that tried to wait it out would find out just how many of the creatures that prowled the forest liked the cover of wind and snow to hunt._

Xxxxxxxx

**Sep 11 - 4 am**

The storm was still brewing out of sight when Talyn's well tuned danger sense woke him. He laid utterly still while trying to figure out what had awoken him. No sound echoed from the trees around the tent. Talyn narrowed his eyes, earlier the woods had been full of the sounds of insects and the occasional bird. Now there was nothing. Every instinct he had was screaming at him that something dangerous was approaching.

Moving slowly so as to make the least amount of sound possible he rolled out of his sleeping bag and inched his way across the tent to Soren. Putting a hand over his mouth to muffle any sound he gave the boy a slight shake. Soren blinked up at him sleepily. Talyn put a finger to his lips, Soren blinked but nodded, giving him a puzzled look.

Talyn pointed to his ear and waved at the entrance to the tent. Soren frowned and titled his head to the side to listen, an alarmed look crossing his face a moment later. Whether he had realized the same thing Talyn had about the silence or heard something he hadn't Talyn wasn't sure, but Soren wasted no time in rolling silently out of his sleeping bag and waking Kira.

Talyn crept to the tent flap, listening intently while the other two carefully packed away the few supplies they had taken out of the trunks. Not so much as a single cricket was making noise out there. A sudden flash of lightning and a distant rumble made them all flinch, the bolt hadn't been very close but it had thrown enough light to faintly silhouette something standing next to the tent.

A vaguely serpentine form stood outside. A long tail and neck joined a narrow looking body with long thin legs. The trio exchanged looks. Talyn quirked an eyebrow up in question, they both shook their heads. Great, so they had no idea what they were dealing with here other than the fact that the whole damn forest had shut up just because it had strolled through.

Kira grinned suddenly, making them both frown at her. She shook her head and pulled out her wand before standing on her tiptoes to poke the tip out the vent at the top of the tent. A frown settled on her face as she put all her focus into casting silently. A look of triumph crossed her face and she pulled her wand back and looked expectantly around them. A moment later a flash of light burst into existence some distance above them. A flare? Talyn was impressed, that was a spell he'd like to know. What he was far less impressed about were the three shadows now visible through the walls of their tent. Kira winced as the shadows shifted to look up at the flare, a soft hiss sounding from outside.

Talyn gave her an expectant look, she just slowly shook her head looking apologetic. All three of them flinched hard a moment later when something brushed over their minds. Before they could even think of doing anything though they had all been frozen in place. From the looks on both Soren and Kira's faces' they were panicking.

**_"SILENCE!"_**A mental voice snapped sharply. Talyn grimaced slightly, he hated having anyone in his head, but it didn't take an idiot to realize whoever was talking to them was _not_ one of the creatures outside. **_"Correct, I am the Headmistress of Snow Point Academy. The creatures currently outside your tent are not part of the test, and I am not so cruel as to attempt to make a bunch of children fight a pack of Warsa."_**

Talyn could see both Soren and Kira's eyes widen in terror. **_"At least the two of you understand the danger. For you, Mr. Ashton, simply understand that these creatures eat magic, and if given the chance will herd you somewhere they can trap you and continue draining your magic when it recovers until you are lucky enough to die."_**

Talyn blanched. Okay, yeah, that was bad, but what were they supposed to do? A distinct feeling of humor answered his thought before the voice spoke again. **_"We will not simply solve everything for you, but in one minute you will be given a distraction that should allow you to make it to the coast. Whether or not you can use that to your advantage and survive will be purely of your own doing. Good luck, and I expect to see you all at the welcoming feast tomorrow."_**

With that the connection broke. Talyn winced slightly, his head pounding a bit from the mental conversation. Kira and Soren crept up next to him at the tent flap, knowing they had to run at the first opportunity. Talyn left the opening and moved over to where Hedwig was perched, now wide awake and swiveling her head rapidly to the left and right, trying to keep track of all the Warsa outside. She hopped off her perch and onto his shoulder, tucking herself tightly into the crook of his neck so she wouldn't be knocked off when he ran for it.

Talyn crept back to the entrance, noting that Kira had his backpack on her shoulders as usual. This was good because he wouldn't have to worry about handing it off to her if they needed to fly to escape. Hedwig dug her talons into his shoulder harshly quite suddenly, her feathers slicking down as she tried to make herself smaller, the door of the tent twitching as something nudged it. Talyn was never so grateful for zippers. A soft hiss sounded outside.

A sudden flair of power to the north made them all twitch, a number of startled hisses sounding outside before, with the faintest of rustles, the Warsa shot north after the scent of powerful magic. Kira waited a beat before tearing the zipper up and all but diving out of the tent, Soren and Talyn close on her heels as they ran for it, abandoning the tent.

They had gone barely half a mile when a long, loud hissing shriek sounded from behind them far back up the trail. They didn't stop to look but only ran faster. Soren stumbled on a root but managed to catch himself before he broke an ankle. The tree cover finally broke as they came out on a low ridge.

Hedwig launched herself off his shoulder while Talyn wasted no time in transforming, the night seeming to get brighter with the change to tiger eyes. Kira jumped on his back, clinging like a bur as he jumped off the ridge. It was no cliff but the sharp incline to the next valley was enough for him to drop and gain enough speed for lift.

He pivoted and looked back at the ridge, circling higher as he watched. Several glinting scaled forms stood on the ridge where they had been only moments before, blankly glowing white eyes watching their every move. Each Warsa was covered in black scales and looked like a cross between a snake and a greyhound, but the size of a horse.

"Fuck that was close," Kira muttered, looking down as well. "Warsa are some of those most dangerous creature that _exist_. They'll probably send a team out to kill them as soon as the test is over," she explained. Talyn only nodded and turned due south again. Kira sighed and pulled out her compass, checking the heading for a moment before putting it away. "We're still on track," she informed him tiredly. Talyn nodded, glancing to the side where Soren and Hedwig were flying. Soren seemed to be holding his one back leg a little oddly, he must have twisted it on that root, he decided.

It was still dark when they reached the coast half an hour later, so they turned west and followed the beach for another few miles before coming in to land on the rocky shore. _"We should wait till morning to cross, it's only an hour from now,"_Soren hissed. Talyn nodded, stretching tiredly as Kira climbed off. With a sigh he changed back and sat on a large rock.

"You okay Soren?" he asked once he was able to speak again. The dragon nodded, he was holding his hind leg off the ground.

_"I'll be fine, just twisted it,"_ he hissed.

"Good. Any idea how far we're going to need to fly?" he asked. Soren stared thoughtfully out across the water while Kira pulled out her compass and studied it.

"Well, everything I've ever heard puts the island Snow Point's on about half way between here and Antarctica. So about 200 miles at best, but probably farther."

_"Think you can fly for 5 hours straight through?" _Soren asked. Talyn eyed the waters warily.

"I supposed I'll have to. Any advise?" he asked. Soren hissed softly to himself, thinking.

_"Fly as high as you can, it will let you glide farther when you're tired, and whatever you do DON'T LAND, even if you feel like you couldn't fly another inch. If you land in the water you won't be able to take off again. Birds might be able to manage that but you are not a bird. You land, you die. If we're lucky we'll be able to find a good current and just glide on that, but we probably won't be, the winds here are too chaotic."_Talyn nodded and looked back out over the water. About 10, maybe 15, miles away, across the water, was a large island. Hopefully they could take a short rest on the far side before getting into it for the long haul.

Hedwig was the first to notice the sudden silence from the ragged forest that bordered the beach, she hissed and clacked her beak, wings half spread to take off. All three of them froze and eyed the quiet trees. "Deja'vu anyone?" Talyn muttered. They both nodded and stood up slowly, keeping their backs to the water.

"How the hell did they get here so fast? Nothing is that fast on the ground! We must have gone 30 miles and it's only been half an hour!" Kira muttered darkly. Talyn drew his wand, keeping it ready. He hadn't forgotten what the headmistress had said about these things eating magic, but maybe something that didn't directly affect them would work. A slight flash of scales was their only warning before the attack came, but he was ready.

"CONTEGO!" he yelled, a dark green shield snapping into existence in a half circle in front of the group, the first of the Warsa slammed into it with a hard crack. The shield shuddered but didn't give.

"SHIT! Talyn, it'll eat the damn shield!" Kira yelled back, peddling to the water's edge.

"I know! How well can you swim?" He asked sharply as the entire pack poured out of the bushes, there had to be at least 15 of the damn things, and they kept moving and weaving around each other in a dizzying pattern.

"Pretty well in my true form, why?" she growled as Soren spread his wings and shrieked at a Warsa that was trying to work its way around the shield, the creature retreated back to the main group.

"Do you think you can swim to the island?" he asked. She blinked and looked out to sea, considering the distance.

"Maybe. Why?"

"Because I can't transform without dropping this shield. I might be able to get myself out of here but there would be no time to pick you up before they would be on us! I can grab you on the island, can these things even swim?" he asked. Kira shook her head no.

"No, they can't, but I'm not sure I can make it that far in water this cold. I'm not coldblooded, but the water will affect me more then it would anything warmblooded."

"I don't think we have a choice!"Soren hissed. Talyn was about to nod when he felt a sudden wrench on the shield, he turned back to see the largest of the Warsa with its jaws gaping open like it was taking a massive breath, the pull increased, draining power from the shield.

"SHIT! Kira, GO!" he snapped. Soren took off, circling high above the Warsa while she changed and slithered into the water after casting numerous spells on herself and on the backpack still on her shoulders. Talyn waited as long as he could for her to move away from the beach before he, with a final glare at the Warsa draining his shield, broke the connection and twisted his magic. Normally it still took about 15 seconds to change, but motivation was a wonderful thing. He was off the ground and flapping hard before the shield even had a chance to fall completely.

One of the Warsa below screeched and tried to jump up and catch him before he could gain enough altitude but Hedwig slashed at it's head, forcing it to duck in surprise. He turned, still gaining height slowly but surely in the harsh wind beginning to blow in from the south.

Finally managing to get about 50 feet over the water he glided for a moment, searching for Kira. The white scales would be nearly impossible to spot in the foamy water, but Soren had already followed her and was gliding above. Talyn coasted down along side and was astonished at just how fast Kira could swim. She tore through the water, her long tail propelling her almost as fast as he could fly.

Kira barely made it to the island, having had to recast the warming charms four times en route, if anything though she was lucky she was in the water. She could swim under the white caps now being generated by the harsh winds, he and Soren had to fight their way through the head wind. Black storm clouds hung on the horizon, the sky over them already overcast as a storm of titanic proportions moved north.

Landing hard on the rocky shore of the island they clambered over the rocks to where Kira was shivering, still in her snake form. _"Change back!"_Soren hissed. She shot him a sour look but nodded in agreement. The change from Lamia to human was decidedly slower when she was half frozen, but she managed it all the same. Cursing softly she started casting more spells around herself.

"So what now?" Kira asked. "We don't have a tent anymore, and I kinda doubt that storm is going to blow itself out before it becomes a problem."

_"We have to keep going,"_Soren hissed. Talyn nodded as Kira glanced south and grimaced at the bitingly cold wind.

"Well, this is going to be fun," she muttered, hauling herself to her feet. "If we're flying through _that_I want a little extra insurance that I'm not going to fall off you," she said, Talyn nodded, wondering what she had in mind. Her movements still a little sluggish she tugged the backpack off and pulled out her own shrunken trunk. After digging around for a moment in it she came up with a bundle of bright blue climbing rope. "I'm just going to make a simple harness so I at least have something better than your fur to hold onto," she explained.

Talyn nodded and stood up so she could start looping the rope around his chest. She ended up making two loops with a short bit of slack line between them, she had him put his front legs through the loops, the piece of slack going across his chest and between his legs. Next she tied the tops of the loops on his legs together on his back just in front of his wings. She would be able to hold onto the rope on his back, and the loops on his legs would keep the harness from slipping forward or back. Not too bad for something she had probably invented on the spot.

Stepping back to inspect her work she nodded differentially. "Its not the best, but it'll work. Just having something to hang onto when you're getting tossed around in that storm will be helpful." Talyn stretched and rolled his shoulders, the rope was a bit uncomfortable, but it wouldn't impede him any.

"Right then, lets get the hell out of here before those Warsa decide to try swimming," Kira said with a grin while re-shrinking her trunk and putting it back in the backpack. Settling the bag on her back she climbed onto Talyn's back and gave the harness an experimental tug, it held and she nodded to Talyn.

With a sigh he spread his wings and leapt into the wind, wings held wide. The wind caught him hard and shoved him backwards, but he tilted his wings carefully and let the wind push him upwards like a kite. Soren rowed his wings hard, trying to match his speed once they started heading forward, but the headwind was nearly 40 miles an hour now.

_"This is going to be a _**_really_**_long flight,"_ he grumbled, squinting against the wind. _"We need get above this storm if possible. It might be too high for us, but we might have better luck with calmer winds if we can at least get away from the water."_Talyn nodded and they both began to work their way up. Kira sighed and cast another warming charm on herself, wishing she was good enough at them to help Soren and Talyn, but the spell she knew was specifically meant to be cast on one's self, it tended to break down when cast on other people because of the way it was powered.

Kira nearly jumped out of her skin a moment later when sharp talons latched onto her arm. Hedwig gave her a baleful look and turned on Kira's arm so that her back was to the Lamia. Catching on Kira brought her arm in to her chest, letting Hedwig tuck herself under her chin and avoid the howling winds. Talyn glanced back at them and nodded, seeing the owl was alright.

About an hour into the flight they finally hit the storm itself. Talyn almost hadn't realized what he was looking at when he first saw it. A solid wall of white was fast approaching them, it was like the horizon was simply gone. _"SHIT! Talyn! Fold your wings right before you hit it and don't open them until you're stable, alright?"_Soren screeched. Talyn nodded, eyes narrowed as he took in the wall. Kira tucked her head down until she was nearly lying down on his back with both hands now on the harness and Hedwig braced between her elbows on his back.

"This is going to suck," she muttered darkly as the distance closed. Talyn waited until the wall of wind and snow was barely a few feet from his nose before slamming his wings closed and pulling his legs in tight to his body. The front hit them hard, knocking the wind out of everyone. Talyn kept his wings and legs in tight even as the hurricane force winds bore down on him, hurling him into a spin. (1)

He squinted hard, trying to keep the driving snow out of his eyes and get himself level, flicking out the tiniest bits of feather to try and compensate. After almost 10 minutes of getting thrown across the sky, but somehow not hitting the water, he finally got himself level and facing the right way up.

Carefully he opened his wings the slightest bit, trying to ease into the wind, but being as inexperienced at flying with wings as he was he wasn't able to keep the raging wind from tearing his wings open. With a roar of pain he managed to haul his wings to a semblance of level, his shoulders aching viciously from the wrenching they had just received. He gave a hard flap and began moving forward once more.

Kira groaned from his back, her knuckles having long since turned white from hanging on so tightly. "I am never flying again," she growled darkly, not that Talyn could hear her over the wind. Bracing one hand tightly she let go of the harness with the other and dug around in her pockets. After a moment she pulled her compass out, looping her wrist back under the rope so she could hold on while still holding the compass as she flicked it open. The needle was pointing almost 90 degrees off course. _Shit_,she thought, squinting into the driving snow. How the hell was she supposed to tell Talyn which way to go?

Grimacing she let go with her other hand, now only held on by her legs and her wrist wrapped in the ropes. Reaching out she pounded on his shoulder. He flinched, swinging his head back to look at her with one bright green eye, she could feel the vibration from his questioning growl through his back. Grabbing back on with her free hand she unhooked her wrist and held up the compass, then pointed to their right. His eyes widened and he nodded, turning his attention back to the driving wind and snow. Looking down at the compass she watched as their course steadily returned to due south. Frowning as he began to over compensate she pounded on his left shoulder. He leveled out obligingly. Again she noted they were now heading a little to far east.

Sighing in annoyance she pressed hard on his right shoulder, it took a minute for him to figure out what she wanted, but after a moment he leaned to the right. Watching the compass she kept up the pressure until they were on course once more before letting go. Talyn leveled back out now, heading the right way. Patting him on his back she settled back into a more comfortable position, Hedwig still wedged safely underneath.

A loud screech sounded partially in her ear, making both her and Talyn flinch away. He dropped a few feet and glared at the blue dragon that had just dropped into view next to them. "About damn time he turned up," she grumbled. Annoyed she held up the compass, he nodded and settled in behind Talyn, wings rowing hard to keep up with the faster tiger.

Xxx

After five hours of fighting the torturous headwind it finally seemed to relent a bit, the snow beginning to thin out. Kira watched Talyn worriedly, his wings had begun to ice up after the second hour and she'd had to thaw him out mid flight, the ice had kept building up though and now even with the winds slacking off she wasn't sure how he kept himself moving. Soren had fared better in that department, his wings were a bit too flexible to really freeze up, and he had far more experience flying long distance as well.

Glancing down at the compass in her hand she noted they were still on course. Looking out at the expanse of white that still swirled around them relentlessly she had to wonder just how much further it was to the island. As if summoned by her thoughts a beam of light cut through the snow before passing them by. Soren and Talyn both started, looking to their right as the snow continued to thin, the beam of light flared by them again.

_"Its a light house!"_Soren hissed excitedly. Kira could feel Talyn practically sag in relief below her. Kira frowned though, glancing down at the compass in her hand then up at the light as it crossed their path once again. Something wasn't right here, the beam from the still out of sight light house was off to their right, the compass was pointing due south. It couldn't be a muggle lighthouse, they were in the middle of the Drake Passage! The only people stupid enough to build anything here were magicals!

Frowning back down at the compass she watched as the needle began to turn and cursed when she realized that the two boys were banking towards the lighthouse. She pressed on Talyn's left shoulder to tell him to turn back but was ignored by the tired teen, eyes narrowed she reached forward and yanked on Talyn's ear hard, he yelped and looked back at her confused. She brandished the compass at him like it was a weapon and pointed back towards their left. He gave her a puzzled look and shot a look at the light before turning back to her confused. Kira sighed and shook her head and pointed left again.

Talyn drooped a bit, but tilted and began to turn back on course, seeing that Soren hadn't noticed the change in course Kira drew her wand and sent a stinging hex at him. Soren screeched in surprise and glared at her. She held up the compass, he blinked, looking outraged. Only a few minutes after they had turned back on course the air seemed to shift.

The wind dropped away completely, leaving them flying through nothing but a gentle flurry. Unnerved they slowed their flight, moving forward cautiously as the sky continued to clear. The ocean began to reappear under them, the black waters extending into the distance. There on the horizon was a mountain. _Looks like I was right, _she thought smugly as both Talyn and Soren picked up the pace, the end finally in sight.

Twenty minutes later they reached the beach. The surf pounded on the rocks far below as they flew by and circled the island. On the far side of the mountain a white stone building jutted out of the mountain. Two towers framed a large building several stories tall that was built back into the mountain. Small turrets and balconies appeared at seemingly random places from the mountain side and the cliffs below indicating most of the school was built back into the mountain itself.

Between the main buildings' towers an arched doorway stood, a large balcony jutting out below it. Standing near the door were three people. Talyn banked, Soren close behind, and headed for the welcoming party. Talyn braked, back winging as he came over the stone platform and tried to land but his legs refused to take his weight. He all but collapsed on the stone, not even bothering to fold his wings.

Soren landed with a thud next to him, managing to not fall on Talyn before like wise collapsing. Kira sighed and unknotted her hands from the rope harness before hauling herself off the panting tiger. She sat down next to him, her own legs feeling like jello after hours of clinging to Talyn's back.

A light chuckle drew the exhausted teenagers' attention back to the three people waiting in front of them. The women in front was tall with silver hair and electric purple eyes, she was wearing a dark blue robe edged in gold. She smiled, stepping over to them and with a flick of her wrist cast a spell which melted all the snow and ice off them and warmed them all the way down to their bones.

Talyn practically turned into a purring puddle next to Kira at the warmth, the Lamia snorted at him and poked him in the side hard. "Wake up!" she hissed. He sighed and picked his head up to look at the woman. Soren grumbled as well and picked himself up off the floor, managing to sit up on slightly shaking legs. The woman quirked an eyebrow up and seemed to consider them for a long moment before speaking.

"Welcome to Snow Point Academy," she drawled, amused. "Congratulations on being the first to arrive.

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1 - I don't know if theres a specific name for this kind of front but I have seen them before. Scary as hell to watch one come in across the water. Everything just starts disappearing like gods running an eraser over the world the BOOM you get slammed by a wall of 60 mile an hour winds and rain. **Duude...sounds epic!**

**Michee Notes – Okay...all I have to say...I can't wait to see what comes next. That and I love the fact that they're first...wait...what?! IT'S 2 AM HERE AND I HAVE TO GET UP AT SIX AHAHAHA! ...cough... Please ignore that. Uh...bye... Heh...**

Quetzal - haha poor Michee next chapter shouldn't take as long, as for why this took so long its mostly a case of school and 'holy shit its been a month?' sorry guys :(


	7. Ignition

Anfauglir got the 500th alert

CapnSureYouAre got the 600 alert

Nicole Worley 200th review

Quetzal - well heres chapter 7 un beta'd though it is kitsune hasn't gotten to it yet so you'll have to suffer through my terrible abuse of commas and sentence structure. Hopefully its not too bad. I MIGHT have another chapter for you tomorrow or the day after. Chapter 8 is chugging along a lot better then 7 did. Which is odd 7 wasn't exactly a complicated chapter, it just didn't want to be written.

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Chapter 7 - Ignition - tobyMac

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"Welcome to Snow Point Academy." She drawled amused. "Congratulations on being the first to arrive." Talyn stared at her in mild surprise, they were first, he was _never_ first to school. He chuckled to himself. This was either a sign of good things to come, or the beginning of the end. Talyn sighed and pulled on his magic tiredly, trying to retake human form. For a long moment nothing happened, then, with all the speed of molasses in the winter his form blurred, slowly bending back to human.

With a groan he flopped onto his back and stared blankly at the sky, every bone and muscle in his body aching, the headmistress smiled faintly. "Perhaps a visit to the infirmary would be in order?" She asked Talyn nodded from his spot on the ground.

"Long as she's got something for the pain." He grumbled with a snort the headmistress waved her hand dismissivly, then with a muttered word and a flash of blue light, all three of them suddenly found themselves in beds in what could only be the infirmary.

_"The fuck?" _Soren hissed annoyed before changing back as well, a faint clatter sounded behind a door to their left before a young man, looking about 30ish, with light brown hair and eyes popped into the ward.

"Already?" He asked a bit bemused eyeing the lot of them. "Normally we don't start getting arrivals until late tonight at the earliest." With a shake of his head he snapped out the incantation to a spell Talyn didn't know, the jewels inset into a black bracer on his arm glowing with power. Talyn studied what must have been a focus similar to a wand intently, he could see how much better something like that would be in a lot of situations, not having to worry about holding a wand, or risk dropping it would be a god send. The man hmm'd before darting back into his office and returning with several potions. "Just to double check Lamia, Drakon, and Human yes?" He asked sorting out the different vials. At their confirmation he passed out the different vials. Kira got a light blue one, while Soren and Talyn got yellow and orange respectively. Talyn was really to tired to care at this point though, merely downing his potion without a word, and relaxing into the incredibly comfortable bed as the pain ebbed away.

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"So Nicolae what do you think?" The headmistress asked as the three new students vanished, the man leaning against the door hummed thoughtfully.

"Their resourceful but I think getting here first was mostly a case of luck and being to damn stubborn to take their time, Adriana." the headmistress, Adriana, nodded and pulled a crystal out of her pocket studying it intently for a moment before putting it back, the next group was still several hours off.

"That was my thoughts as well, they certainly have promise, but the younger boy especially seems a bit, off somehow." Nicolae nodded.

"His magic felt warped we'll have to look into it." he agreed stepping away from the wall and walking to the edge of the platform, watching the storm rage in the distance.

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Talyn was awoken at what felt like the crack of dawn by a pained screech. Sitting up sharply in bed, his entire body protesting the movement, he was greeted by the sight of the healer from before trying to patch up a massive bleeding slash in the side of a thrashing gryphon. The gryphon was a light dusty tan with dark brown markings on its face like a falcon, and barring on its wing tips. The pupils of great golden eyes were blow wide open, the slash, though serious, wasn't bad enough to cause a reaction like this, not unless the gryphon had the pain tolerance of a 2 year old. Something else had to be wrong as well. Not wasting another moment staring in awe at the massive creature, he leapt out of bed, quickly casting an impedimenta on the gryphon. The spell only slowed down movement, rather then stopping it completely, so he figured it would be better then just petrifying the delirious gryphon. Less risk it would tear something trying to move through the spell.

The healer sent him a grateful look and set about stemming the flow of blood from the slash, while Talyn ducked under a frozen wing and crouched by the massive creatures head and continuing to hold the spell steady against the gryphons own magic, which was now struggling against his spell. The healer rapidly sealed the wound now that his patient wasn't dodging his spell work and set about casting more spells over the gryphon. "What happened?" Talyn asked cautiously, not wanting to interrupt the man. The healer frowned heavily.

"It looks like she got bitten by something back on the mainland. Its not enough to kill her, but she needs an antidote if she's going to be coherent for the meeting at lunch. She was alright until she got here then she got blown off the platform and landed on the rocks. Its a miracle she only got that gash. Keep holding her still while I grab the potion she needs." he answered sharply before running over to a large cabinet with glass doors. Yanking one open he quickly riffled through the jars and vials within before coming back with a large vial containing a bright blue potion. Crouching back down next to the gryphons head he carefully cast some kind of spell on the vial before tapping the gryphons shoulder, the vials contents promptly vanished.

Talyn looked blankly at the empty vial. "um...how?" He asked confused, the healer glanced at him puzzled.

"I just spelled the potion into her blood stream, its far easier then trying to shove it down the throat of something that can take you arm off before you blink." He answered drily. Talyn nodded, still uncertain, but unwilling to worry about the odd magic while he was still holding the spell on the gryphon. Ten minutes passed before Talyn thought she might be coming out of it, her eyes were focusing more and she wasn't fighting the spell as much.

"She should be alright now, you can take the spell off." the healer told him a few more minutes later. Talyn obligingly cut the power to the spell, letting it fade away. The tension went out of the gryphons body as it relaxed a bit.

"Sorry about that, but I don't think he could heal you with you thrashing around like that." He explained. The gryphon blinked slowly and nodded. While the healer continued to run diagnostic spells over her.

"it iss alrrright, thankss." She answered a slight hiss to her words. Talyn blinked surprised at how clear the words were with a beak like that, but nodded all the same.

"Not a problem, my names Talyn, whats yours?" He asked trying to distract the gryphon from the still working healer.

"My name iss Verra." She answered. Talyn nodded and glanced back around the room, noting that the beds Kira and Soren had slept in were empty. Well that explains why they hadn't been helping.

"Alright that should do it, do you feel?" Asked the healer pulling them both out of there thoughts. Vera cocked her head to the side and carefully stretched, testing the healed cut in her side.

"A bit ssore but well enough, and my mind is not clouded anymorrre" Vera answered after a moment, Talyn took a step back while pulled herself to her feet.

"So where did everyone else go?" He asked the healer, the man shrugged.

"I sent them down for lunch, you should head down too, you only have another hour if you want to eat before the headmistress comes down to talk to you all."

"And why didn't they wake me up?" Talyn asked mock outraged, the healer rolled his eyes while Vera snickered.

"They tried, you sleep like the dead, Mr. Ashton." was the dry response. Talyn winced slightly embarrassed at that, normally he was an incredibly light sleeper(a side effect of living with the Durslys), for him to not wake up the moment someone moved, he must have been far more tired then he'd thought.

"It was unsurprising really." the healer added, amused. "Those Wrysa drained an incredible amount of power from that shield of yours. It was a crazy idea, but its apparent enough that you have the reserves to back yourself up. But that and then flying across the passage? Is it any wonder nothing short of the end of the world was going to wake you up?" Talyn grumbled but nodded all the same, glancing over at Vera, he blinked confused. The gryphon was staring at him in awed shock.

"You fought Wrrysa?" She asked, amazed, he nodded confused. So what? It was just another of the never ending parade of nasty critters he'd had to deal with, at least this one wasn't one of Hagrids pets. "Wherre they white orrr black?" She demanded excitedly.

"Um...black?" He answered, taken aback at her enthusiasm.

"Even a fully trrained Grryphon couldn't use magic against a Black Wrysa! How could you surrvive doing so?" She asked excitedly, Talyn blinked at her a bit bemused, the healer just chuckled.

"He's got some absurd reserves, thats how." he explained. Vera clacked her beak in thought before nodding definitively.

"You will tell me the storry overr lunch!" She ordered before stalking out the door like she owned the place. Talyn stared after her mystified, the healer snickered at the look on his face.

"This you first time dealing with a gryphon?" He asked amused, at Talyn's nod, he snorted.

"Gryphons naturally have an ego the size of a small country, not that they mean anything by it, thats just the way they are. Best to just agree with her, she won't leave you alone until she gets what she wants." He explained. Talyn sighed, but nodded and headed out the door, as much as he didn't want to be harassed by the excited gryphon, he was hungry.

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Talyn did his best to tell the curious gryphon what had happened on the beach as they ate. Kira snickering at his side while she and Soren interjected their own little comments when they felt Talyn was down playing his own actions, or how much danger they had been in. The one thing they couldn't agree on was how many Wrysa there had been. Soren said 15, Kira said 6, and Talyn just said it was 'a lot' and didn't want to participate in the argument.

The dinning hall at Snow Point was much more interesting then the dispute as far as he was concerned. The hall was massive easily twice the size of the great hall at Hogwarts, the arched ceiling looked like it was made of glass, but he knew it couldn't have been. He would have spotted a glass roof this size while they were landing if it was real. He liked the effect more then Hogwarts enchanted ceiling, the 'skylights' let in real sunlight, Hogwarts had always muted the light coming though the spells. It may have looked cool, but it just felt fake.

The hall itself was set up with its varied students in mind. Tables and chairs were set up at different heights on the rough white marble floor, and unlike Hogwarts the food didn't appear on the tables. Rather, a buffet of sorts was set up along the right hand wall, with helpers for those who needed someone to carry things back for them. Everything from meatloaf,fruit, whole fish, and half a deer was available. Vera had practically squealed in glee at the sight of the deer and promptly had one of the helpers take it back to their table (she could have carried it herself, but that would have gotten blood all over the floor).

Talyn had then been surprised when she had actually been very neat about eating, rather then just tear into the carcass. Thats not to say it wasn't very bloody, but he hadn't felt the need to edge away from her on account of maybe getting eaten himself.

Over the course of the meal another 6 people had straggled in, one pair practically collapsing at the first table. They had obviously just gotten here. Given who he had arrived with and his new friend Vera, he was still surprised to see that of the other new students only two others that thus far been, or at least appeared, to be human. Kira had only been to happy to tell him what everyone was. So far they had two wolfkin, a species regularly mistaken for werewolves but far from crazy, they looked human but with variously colored wolf ears, claws, and tails. The one girl was covered in odd luminous blue tattoos across her arms and neck, she had dark brown hair and was dressed like she had just walked out of a western. Kira explained that the blue lines were sealing magic meant to control powerful abilities until the user could do it themselves, the blue meant she was a seer.

Next up had been a curious creature that looked a bit like a short bipedal black lizard, he wore a vest of dark blue leather with silver spirals stitched in it. Vera had called him over and the two had a short conversation in some language Talyn couldn't make heads or tails of. Kira said he was a Hertasi. Both they and the gryphons had been created by the same Mage thousands of years ago.

Next had been a group of three ethereally beautiful humans, faye apparently. Kira told him to never except gifts from them. They weren't half as nasty as human mythology painted them, but that doesn't mean you could trust them to not trick you if you weren't paying attention.

So far they had a grand total of 21 students in the hall talking quietly and waiting for noon. "How many students did we start with?" Talyn asked. Kira and Soren shrugged Vera looked thoughtful.

"Most yearrs it iss about 100 orr sso." She finally answered. Talyn stared at her shocked.

"And we've only got about 20 here? Out of 100?" He asked dumbfounded, Vera nodded, Kira sighed unsurprised.

"I think your underestimating how exclusive SnowPoint is. Most years only number about 30 on average." Kira shrugged, Talyn looked at her blankly.

"Indeed I will prrrobably be the only gryphon here."Vera added. "Most of my kind stay in the cities to be taught by our own, but I wished to learn more kinds of magic then what is normally taught, so I came here." Talyn wasn't sure what to think of that, his year at Hogwarts had sure as hell been bigger then 30 students, more like a hundred and change.

Soren sighed, pushing his plate away, and glancing up at the slightly raised platform at the head of the room, a large bronze clock on the wall read 11:35. Talyn glanced down at his his journal and finished a short note to Hermonie telling her he had arrived safety and been the first to arrive, but glossing over the journey itself. A commotion at the doors drew everyone in the rooms attention ten minutes later, a group of five people staggered in. One, a younger looking boy with brilliant blue hair, was being carried by two others. The teen was scowling viciously, his ankle was in a make shift splint, but aside from that, he looked fine.

"Put me down already!" He all but hissed at the two carrying him, they rolled their eyes.

"Stop bitching Nick!" Snapped the black haired, amber eyed teen on the left, they set Nick down roughly at one of the tables near the entrance. The second boy stretched and cracked his back once he was free of the others weight. Light brown hair fell into his face all but hiding his pale green eyes as he observed the other two bickering. Sighing he wandered over to the buffet and snagged a plate leaving the others to their own devices.

Talyn snorted and turned away more interested in the head mistress who had appeared on the dais while his back was turned. Behind her on the wall the clock ticked down drawing ever closer to the deadline of 12:00. Only 2 minutes now.

The last minutes seemed to crawl by, the second hand seemingly moving slower the longer the stared at it. The tooth rattling BONG that shook the room the moment the clock hit noon earned more then a few yelps. The headmistress smiled grimly as the last ring faded away into a hollow silence. "Times up." She said softly, her voice easily heard by everyone in the utter silence.

She studied them thoughtfully her eyes roving across the room, stopping here and there for a moment before moving on. "Let me once more welcome the 26 of you who have arrived here successfully, to Snow Point Academy. I would advise you listen closely to everything I have to say, for I will not repeat myself. For the next week you will be the only students at Snow Point. This grace period should not be taken for granted. I have no doubt many of you have heard about the cut throat and dangerous nature of Snow point." she paused and her smirk gained a sharp edge, before continuing "I am happy to tell you it is completely true, out of everyone here I expect only two thirds of you to make it to graduation, but there are rules, or everyone would be to paranoid to get any studying done." a small amount of tension went out of the group at this. Seeing this headmistress Adriana chuckled darkly. "Don't get your hopes up kids, there are only four places in the school where violence of any kind is _not_ tolerated. These places are the common rooms,dorms, the great hall and the Library. Anyone caught causing trouble will most likely be expelled, or if the professor who catches you isn't feeling particularly merciful, death is also likely. Violence in classrooms is up to the teacher in question, some classes like Potions and Blood magic will get you killed or otherwise seriously inconvenienced by the professor if you start shit, so don't. Outside of that, keep in mind that you can, and no doubt will, be attack anywhere else, the older years will occasionally kill off the competition if they feel your a threat to them understood?" Everyone nodded.

"Now the school year here at snow point lasts from September 19 to June 1st, only first years arrive on the 12th. This week will be taken up by orientation and getting the lot of you settled in your rooms and get your classes picked. Classes at Snow Point are laid out a bit differently here then at most other schools, you will be picking 6 main classes. Every year you are allowed to change you schedule as you learn where your talents lay, students from any year can be found in most classes, some classes will require a test to see if you have the necessary abilities to participate. Aside from those 6 main classes over the course of the year there will be a number of workshops, each lasting anywhere from one to 5 or 6 sessions. These workshops teach any number of things such as making alternative foci to courses on other cultures. Keep an eye on the bulletin board in your dorm for notices." she waived her hand and a packet of papers appeared in front of each of them. "these packets hold a general outline of all the available main classes, you will be given the next two days to pick, some classes require specific abilities. There will be three professors in the hall to test you if you don't know what abilities you may have. I will speak with you all more tomorrow and answer any questions." Adriana waited for a beat before stepping off the dais and leaving the room.

The room remained utterly silent for a long moment after the headmistress was gone before a light rustle of paper broke the silence and all at once everyone was talking. Talyn sighed and looked down at his packed before flipping it open and beginning to read the course descriptions.

The sheer number of classes was staggering. They offered everything from dueling to soul magic and everything in between. The first problem he saw was that he couldn't go straight for the Necromancy, then again, reading the description for its prerequisite Death Magic, he might not need to. It sounded like everything he would ever want to know! He chewed his lip uncertain before jotting the class down on a spare scrap of parchment. Glancing back down the list, he winced. Every class he looked at seemed to have possible major applications for fighting Voldemort! How the hell was he supposed to pick only 6? Talyn groaned softly, this was going to take awhile, where was Hermione when you needed her?

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Quetzal - so what did you think? Good, bad, terrible?

REVIEW!


	8. Take to the Skies

Quetzal - HELLO! Whats this? I haven't made you wait a month for the next chapter? O_0 THE WORLD, ITS ENDING!( on that note I should have waited till the 21st to post this then! XD) not too much happening this chapter just build up and info unfortunately. though you may find the ending interesting! Is that...hm I think it is! A plot! IT APPEARS! Chapter 9 should be out a bit quicker then the month I'v been averaging but keep in mind I'm down to my two final weeks of the semester here, finals are my priority.

Puppethouse got the 400th favorite

Ceramicpizza got the 700th alert (you people are scary I'v never been this popular XD)

THIS CHAPTER IS NOT BETA'D! FEAR IT!** FEAR IT!**

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Chapter 8 - Take to the Skys - Owl City

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Talyn sighed and pushed his chair back, it had been four hours, and he now had at least a rough idea of what he wanted to do. Now he just needed to have one of the professors sitting around the room test his magic to make sure he was capable of actually participating. The only classes that needed testing that he had picked were death magic and blood magic so hopefully this wouldn't take to long. Heading across the room towards the professor with blond hair and purple eyes, he had to wonder what the hell the guy was, humans didn't have eyes that color. He Stopped in front of the table where the man was reading an ancient looking book. "So how does this testing work?" He asked to get the man attention, the professor glanced up at him, a distinctly bored expression on his face.

"What classes?" He asked

"Blood magic and Death magic." Talyn answered promptly not wanting the man to get irritated with him, he didn't want a repeat of the never ending bullshit with Snape.

"Hold this for a few seconds, if it changes colors it means you have the potential to use death magic, as long as its some shade of grey your good." The man answered holding out a gray crystal sphere. Talyn took it and nearly dropped it as his hand felt like it was simultaneously freezing and burning, the sphere took only a moment to turn stark black.

"Um..." Talyn tried not to wince, the professor had said grey not black, why did he get the feeling he'd done something he shouldn't have _again_? The professor in question stared at the crystal blankly for a long moment before holding out his hand. Talyn obligingly handed the crystal over, once in the professors hands it lightened to a soft grey. The professor frowned and set it down, it turned clear, then grey once more when he picked it up again. Talyn wanted to sink into the floor when the crystal was held out to him again, taking it his hand burned/froze for a second time before turning black.

"And here I thought it was broken." The man drawled shaking his head before fixing Talyn with a razor sharp look. "have you ever had any near death experiences? He asked, Talyn nodded, fighting the urge to sigh. The professor nodded, chuckling grimly, and took the sphere back. "Well kid, better be carful when you decide to take that class, it won't take much for you to graduate to all the way dead." He answered. Talyn stared at him puzzled.

"What do you mean?" He asked confused. The professor raised and eye brow.

"Don't worry about it, you'll learn what it means in class. But unfortunately with a reaction like _that_, you will be required to take death magic whether you want to or not." Talyn grimaced, not liking the sound of that, and nodded. The professor studied him for a moment before nodding as well. He snagged a small roll of parchment off the table and unrolled it. Waiting the ends down he waved to the concentric circles and lines that arched across the page. "The runes used in black Blood magic are based greatly on instinct, this is an extremely simple ritual matrix for a first level blood spell, I want you to tell me at least in the vaguest sense what it does. You'll be able to tell if your capable of it. If it just looks like a bunch of squiggles to you, say so, you won't do yourself any good by guessing." Talyn nodded glad to have something to concentrate to take his mind of the professors ominous words on death magic.

He stared at the diagram thoughtfully, eyes tracing the curves and swirls, not entirely sure what he was supposed to be looking for. The deigns looked fluid, each one swirling into the next without any sharp angles or dead ends. "um...er, something to do with speed?" He hazarded tilting his head to the side. "agility?" he asked, the professor raised and eye brow.

"Not bad, you were close. I was half expecting you to give me a detailed synopsis of everything it does after your last test." Talyn gave him a sour look making him laugh. "Oh don't look at me like that, you passed this test as well, not the best first try at nor the worst. This deals with increasing reaction times. So speed and agility aren't bad." He snagged a small sheet of paper and scribbled several things on it in langue Talyn didn't know. "Put this with you class picks when you turn them in tomorrow, its your clearance for death and blood magic." Talyn took the paper and was only to glad to flee back to his friends table

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Hogwarts Sep. 12th

The last week had been, interesting, no doubt about that. Dumbledore was still desperately searching for Harry (and failing miserably). Her journal had been filling up with little notes until yesterday when Harry had told her that the race to the school was about to begin and he wouldn't be calling her until sometime on the 12th if he made it.

She'd been biting her nails all day, Ron had stared at her like she had suddenly announced she was one of Luna's snorkacs when she had distractedly informed him that she didn't have any tranfiguations notes for him to copy. Understandable really, he probably thought the world was ending. Her? Hermonie Granger NOT taking notes? Inconceivable!

Lunch had arrived and she was munching distractedly on an apple when the first sign of trouble came her way. She almost yelped when Mcgonagall tapped her on the shoulder after she failed to hear the professor calling her. She looked up, chagrinned at her obliviousness. "Yes, Professor?" She asked embarrassed. Minerva quirked an eyebrow up before speaking.

"The Headmaster would like to speak with you Miss. Granger, the password is peppermint sticks." Hermonie nodded trying not to show her worry on her face. She _had_ been acting oddly she knew that, but surely it hadn't been bad enough to get the headmasters attention! Did he find out that she had helped Harry run? Theories chased each other back and forth through her head, each more absurd then the last. Standing up as Minerva walked away, she snagged her bag and headed out of the hall.

Ten minutes late she was standing in front of the gargoyle, she hesitated, then called out the password. The gargoyle animated and leapt out of the way revealing the staircase. Heading up Hermonie braced herself for the interrogation she didn't doubt was coming. Reaching up to knock on the inner office door she jumped when the headmaster called out for her to come in. Opening the door uncertainly she stepped into the room. As usual the vast number of clinking and tinging devices filled the room with a sound like wind chimes.

"Wonderful of you to join me Miss. Granger!" Dumbledore announced with a smile, his eyes twinkling brightly. Hermonie wanted to wince. "Tea?" He asked gesturing to the pot on the desk, a steaming cup already sitting, half empty, next to him. Hermonie nodded glad he had offered, she needed something to calm her nerves before she snapped and started throwing curses around. Hermonie would later claim, in her defense, that she hadn't thought the headmaster would have the arrogance to think he could spike her tea with truth potion and get away with it. She didn't notice anything was wrong when she first took a drink, the tea tasted completely normal.

Even as observant as she was she didn't have even a moment to panic before the calm daze of the truth potion washed over her. Dumbledore watched her intently for a long moment before smiling. "Lovely tea isn't it Miss. Granger? Now for the reason I called you here, do you know where exactly Mr. Potter has run off to? I'm most worried about getting him safely back to school. I'm sure you agree that missing anymore school will be terrible for his grades." He finished. Hermonie felt a distant sense of vague offense that the headmaster thought she was that shallow, but that faded as the truth potion continued to take effect, her thoughts turning to Harrys location. Where was harry? Well, he was somewhere in south America or thereabouts, but _exactly_ where..? She opened her mouth to answer.

"I don't know exactly where he is." She answered distantly, the headmaster frowned sharply, he had been sure they were in contact!

"You haven't spoken with him since he ran away?" he asked annoyed.

"No..." and indeed she hadn't spoken to him since he had left. Even under the effects of a truth potion Hermonie was nothing if not exact and to the letter when it came to answering questions. Dumbledore growled softly to himself, ignoring Hermonie for the moment, he had to find that damn boy! He would have bet his favorite socks that Granger knew where the boy had vanished to! But apparently not, he would have to pursue other methods of finding the brat. Tugging a drawer in his desk open he removed a small bottle filled with a soft blue liquid, he sighed, glad he hadn't wasted a stronger potion on the girl. Leaning forward he poured a few drops in Hermonies tea before casting a mild spell to compel her to drink it. Hermonie drank down the rest of the glass the antidote taking quick effect. She blinked confused as the fog of the potion left her mind, wondering what had just happened.

Her conversation with the headmaster seemed oddly distant, as though she had dreamed the whole thing, had he done something? "Miss. Granger?" She snapped her eyes up to look at the ancient wizard.

"Um, yes headmaster was there anything else you needed?" She hazarded, thinking hard about what they had spoken about, the headmaster had asked where harry was hadn't he? But that was all right she had told him she didn't know just as she planned to. She must have just been nervous, it wasn't like she had told him the truth!

"No thats quite all right, you may go. You should have just enough time to reach your Charms class if you hurry." He answered with a smile. Hermonie cursed and grabbed her bag off the floor before tearing out of the office. Dumbledore snorted, honestly that damn girl needed to relax a bit before she ran herself into an early grave.

Xxxxxxxxx

It was late now and she was nervously watching her journal, waiting for it to glow, indicating it held an unread message. The curtains were pulled tightly closed around her bed so no one would comment about her continued odd behavior. Shortly after charms had finished the true magnitude of what had happened in the headmasters office had finally occurred to her. She would have realized sooner but, her memory of the actual conversation was foggy, all she really remembered were her answers. When she hadn't answered anything correctly she hadn't assumed any foul play.

After a moment of righteous fury at the headmaster audacity, the cold reality of the situation had sunk in. There was no way she could tell anyone what Dumbledore had done. No one would ever believe her! She could barely believe it! She had really wanted to believe that the headmaster was at least in part a good person. That maybe he was just going _way_ over the top in his efforts to keep harry safe and 'innocent', but the longer she looked at everything the more she came to the conclusion that either the headmaster had less then honorable intentions in general or he was finally going senile. She would bet her life that 'going senile' wasn't the issue.

The only question now was what was she going to do now that she knew what the headmaster would try to get her to talk, he would believe her for now, but how long until he dosed her with something stronger and tried again on the off chance harry had contacted her later on?

A soft glow distracted her from her thoughts. Snapping her eyes down she saw that the journal was indeed glowing. She quickly snatched it up glad to have a temporary distraction to the unfortunate reality of her situation. Flipping the journal open she quickly turned to the newest message.

_Well, I made it in one piece! It was hard but not as bad as I thought it would be, we had to get past a few creatures including a pair of Roc's. There was also some unauthorized creatures that interfered with the race that apparently eat magic, the headmistress contacted us though and distracted them so we could get away. Kira and Soren say their called Wrysa. Only 26 people have made it here so far, but we were the first to arrive for once! We got here on the second day. I would have messaged you sooner but flying across the ocean in a blizzard was tiring and I slept like a rock. I'm sure you'll be happy to know I already made a new friend as well! Vera is a gryphon, they really tell us nothing at Hogwarts do they? I would have never guessed that gryphons were intelligent or that they could talk! I'm picking my classes right now so ill send you another message when I figure out exactly what I'm talking. I have to go now, times almost up and the headmistress probably won't appreciate me scribbling while she's talking. _

_Talyn_

Hermonie put down the journal and stared blankly at the curtains of her bed for a moment before face palming with a groan of frustration. Why the hell did she let him out of her sight? Roc's where class XXXX dangerous magical creatures the only reason they didn't have 5 X's was because they were rare and hadn't killed enough people to warrant it yet! And if _that_ was what her idiotic brother was mentioning out of all the things he had run into, she could be certain that everything else was a whole lot worse! And Wrysa? She had never heard of them before, but anything that _ate_ magic couldn't possibly be good! She would have to look them up in the library tomorrow or the curiosity would kill her.

As for the gryphon...she distinctly remembered reading about them in her care of magical creatures book, it had claimed they were beasts with the ability to occasionally mimic voices like a parrot! If one was a student at Harrys new school though that was doubtful, not that she hadn't discovered by second year that info on magical creatures was suspect at best. She had been ordering books from America since that summer! Far more reliable though difficult to get as most books on magic from outside the country were banned. Her mother had said the rant about 'book burning heathen barbarians' that followed that discovery had been a thing of beauty.

But whatever happened now Harry had at least arrived safely. And with only 26 students in his year class sizes probably wouldn't exceed 5 or 6, the whole school couldn't be more then around 200 students. So training would be far more personalized then Hogwarts and allow for more in depth study. Hermonie shook her head with a faint smile. Maybe in a year or two she could try to go to Snow Point as well. She doubted he parents would allow it though even if her father had been happy to help harry escape the country, not that she had told them the trip was completely unauthorized. Dan had just thought that one of her wizarding friends needed to travel the normal way, and didn't had the slightest clue how to buy a plane ticket (which was true).

A sudden horrible thought occurred to her. What if dumbldore asked her parents if they had seen harry? Her dad wouldn't know any better to not tell the headmaster anything! And her dad knew Harrys final destination in Argentina! Forcing herself to calm down she assured herself that it was unlikely the headmaster would ask them, not when he had dosed her with apparently ineffective truth potion, Harry wouldn't have gone to her parents without her helping him. If she didn't know anything then they wouldn't.

Hermonie groaned softly in aggravation. Why did everything have to be so bloody complicated? Huffing softly she picked up her journal and started writing a short response. No mention was made of the headmaster dosing her with truth potion, or of her other worries. If Harry thought his escape was putting her in danger he would blow his cover in an instant to race to the rescue and she couldn't allow that. Not right now. It wasn't like she was incapable of taking care of herself, she was no firsty any more! She could handle it.

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Adriana stared thoughtfully at the large 3 dimensional map that had yet to be moved back to its room. Why hadn't they seen what was going on right under their damn noses? This was _Snow Point_, shit like this DIDN'T happen. The door creaked as Nicolae entered. Adriana didn't look up.

"Whats the problem?" He asked curiously, none of the students had started having issues yet, so he saw no reason for the headmistresses tenseness. Adriana didn't even blink.

"I set out a team to deal with those Wrysa, they were unable to find any trace of them, so I took a look through the recordings from last night to try and track where they went." She glanced up at him, her expression completely flat. "Look at the marked recordings for sections 504, 27, and 432." She finally said grimly. Nicolae frowned, but turned to the map and tapped several crystals on the side. And image popped up over the map showing a small clearing with a tent and one of the potential students on watch. He frowned once more and glanced at the read out next to the image. The first night section 27. For a long moment nothing happened. The teen shuddered suddenly and collapsed. A moment later a sleek black form darted from the shadows of the trees and dragged him off. Another glance at the read out showed the teen was merely unconscious, rather then dead. Another 3 forms shot into the tent and dragged out another two, before hauling them away as well.

Nicolae was completely still, staring at the screen in shock. Quick as lightning he changed the recording to the next, then the one after that. 20 minutes later the last recording of section 504, only 4 hours ago, played out showing more of the same. "Adriana?" he asked shakily after a long minute of silence.

"I'v already sent the teams back out to check the sites. Theres no sign that any of those taken are dead. Although the recordings are undamaged, the alarms in the area were drained of all magic. The only reason they didn't get our first arrivals was because that one boy would probably wake up if a mouse sneezed on the other side of a football field, we just happened to be watching that area and saw the flare. Nine potential students taken, none of them confirmed dead. What does that tell you?" she asked flatly. Nicolae could only stare at the map in shock. Six? Had they gotten the other team it would have been 9, this, what the hell was going on?

"Someone must be controlling the Wrysa?" he asked, she shook her head.

"Black Wrysa, they would just absorb any control spell cast on them." She countered, he frowned, not liking where this was going.

"If their not being controlled?" He trailed off, she just smiled grimly.

"They are acting in concert, with enough intelligence and precision to take out the alarms but not the cameras. We would have seen sections of the map go dark if they had, but with no alarms we had no reason to look in those areas. And then they take the children, rather then just draining and killing them. And heres the real kicker, would we have ever thought twice about the disappearances, if those kids hadn't woken up and got our attention, however unintentionally, with that flare?" Adriana looked up from the map with a quirked eyebrow. Nicolae sat down heavily, stunned, the headmistress chuckled darkly, before delivering the final hit. "And how many students do you think have also been lost in this manner over the years?" He snapped his eyes up to her, even more alarmed, she just leaned back smiling grimly. "I went back through the records, checking the old recordings, someone else is working on it now to see just how serious of a problem were dealing with here. I found two incidents last year, and another one the year before that."

"Wrysa aren't supposed to be that smart!" Nicolae hissed, she shrugged and picked up and ancient leather bound book that had rested, unnoticed, on the desk and flipped it open before setting it down in front of him.

"This is a copy of the first ever encounter with Black Wrysa, as recorded by Silver Gryphon, Tadrith. He states that both he and his partner Blade observed a high level of intelligence in the Black Wrysa. Going so far as to disassemble traps and adapt there attack strategies on the spot. Its been ten thousand years since the Mage Wars ended, is it really so odd to consider that they may have gotten even smarter?" she finished. Nicolae stared at the book for a long moment not even bothering to read, he believed her, but still...

"This, is bad."

"Understatement of the century little brother." She drawled at his ashen expression. "understatement of the century"

Xxxxxxxxx

Quetzal - And so the day is saved by dear old overly specific Hermonie. come on people admit it you can completely see that happening! also! YAY! A PLOT! To all of those I'v been discussing the Velgarth magic / modern magic thing with. iv decided that I'm going to disregard a lot of things with velgarth magic system. As much as I like it it just doesn't fit with the harry potter universe without some serious modification. Although some things will remain, like the ranking system for power levels among other things. To everyone who has no clue what I'm talking about it will be explained later as harry/talyn learns at snow point.

Also if anyone has any idea's about things like villains or monsters they'd like to see or anything like that feel free to throw them my way you never know what I'll come up with. I'm not one of those authors that throws a fit if someone suggests a different way to take something.


	9. Shooting Star

Zarkan got the 300th review

Marcus1233 got the 800th Alert

Jeffariah123 got the 500th favorite

Quetzal - not as much happens this chapter as I wanted, it ended up being what I feel is filler even if it does set up a number of issues for later. Hope you like it!

On another note I am now 22! XD today is my birthday

**update! 1-24-13 - there is now a forum for my stories! if you'd like to toss out ideas for future chapters or just complain to each other about my updating habits drop by and take a look! fanfiction net/forum/Dragons-Nest/126848/**

**next chapter will be up in a day or two(maybe) ;)**

Xxxxxxxx

Shooting Star - Owl City

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A sharp whistle drew everyones attention to the doors of the great hall. The chaos had long since died down as students poured over the packets they had been given and were tested for various classes. The massive bronze clock on the wall now read 8pm. Dinner having been devoured an hour earlier. A tall man smirked at them from the door as they all looked over. "Listen up you lot! My name is Terwyn, and that is exactly what you will be calling me, any attempts to make up nicknames will get you hung off the mountain. Now pack up your bags I'm going to be showing you were your common room and the dorms are! You can keep working there if you want so no whining!" Talyn stared at the man, it was the same guy that had given them their compasses. He heard Kira crack her knuckles threateningly next to him, a vicious smile on her face.

"He dies" she hissed, Soren sighed softly.

"He could probably kill you with both hands tied behind his back and blindfolded Kira. Maybe next year?" he asked hopefully. Kira blinked slowly and turned to look at Soren, a malevolent expression on her face, the Drakon smiled hopefully at her while edging slowly away. Talyn just snorted and gathered the scattered scraps of paper he'd been taking notes on, shoving them in the folder before putting it in his backpack and standing up.

"Sometime this century you two?" he asked dryly while walking away, a chuckling Vera at his side. Soren and Kira cursed and scrabbled to grab their own papers as the rest of the group trailed out of the room after the the professor. Talyn shook his head and looked around the hall. The floor here was the same rough white marble as the great hall. Vera would have probably been slipping every other step if it had been polished smooth. Every dozen feet or so a glowing basketball size globe hung from the ceiling, illuminating the black veined white stone. Every so often they would pass a patch of golden rune work etched onto the walls. The swirling concentric rings of symbols seemed to glow softly as they passed.

The building didn't seem to have any discernible layout, the corridor branched and turned without any sign of where they were headed for the 10 minutes it took to reach the dorms. A bonze door nearly 8 feet tall and 6 wide dominated a round room at the end of the hall. Runes and strange swirling lines and circles covered the door, carved deeply into the metal. Terwyn stopped and turned to watch them as they all filed into the small room. It was a tight squeeze with Vera taking up so much room but they managed it.

"Right then this is the entrance to the first year dorms; although they are wards on the door, these wards do NOT keep out your fellow students. They are for security in the event the school is attacked. However there are wards that will attack anyone who starts fighting in dorms, if you absolutely must murder someone take it outside." He grinned a bit viciously, the group exchanged glances a few students were grinning sadistically, one girl looked like she wanted to bolt.

After giving them a moment to think Terwyn turned around and pulled the door open. The room beyond was massive, a domed ceiling stretched up almost 30 feet. A mosaic of black and ruby red glass covered the ceiling in spirals. The room itself was as large as the gym back at Talyn's old elementary school. A fire place made of dark granite dominated the far wall. More of the glowing globes from the hall hung from the ceiling, illuminating the variously sized tables and chairs scattered around the room. The floor was tiled with what looked to be silver flecked black granite, a vast change from the white marble of before. Tapestries covered the walls depicting landscapes and ancient battles, and brought some life to the otherwise darkly colored room.

Talyn found he liked it, it wasn't the headache inducing bright red and gold of the gryffindor common room, but it wasn't like standing in a cave with the globes in the ceiling casting bright light over everything. "Stop staring and get your asses in here!" The professor snapped everyone jumped to obey and filed rapidly into the room. Terwyn snorted and waved to the room. "This is obviously the main common room, the doors you see leading off from here each lead to a two person apartment. You have 5 minutes to pick a roommate or I will be choosing for you!" The group stared at him in surprise, not having been expecting to be rooming with anyone. Talyn cast a wary glance over the group wondering if any off them could be trusted to not murder him when he was sleeping. Soren and Kira were obviously going to be rooming together, they had know each other since they were little, but what about himself?

"Talyn?" He blinked and glanced to his left where Vera still stood, an amused glint in her eyes. "If you wisssh you can room with me?" She inquired he blinked surprised that she had offered, it wasn't like they had known each other for more than a day. He glance around the room where most of his year mates seemed to be having stare downs with everyone else. That was still better than everyone else here though he thought drily. With a wry smile he nodded to Vera.

"Alright, if you don't mind?" He agreed. Vera snorted casting a look at the rest of the group.

"I think we can agrrrree that mosssst of thisss lot would kill usss in ourrr sssleep." She drawled, he nodded, making a note to ward their rooms against theft. Just because they, and the older students for that matter, couldn't kill them didn't mean that they could steal and or sabotage their stuff.

"Times up! Pairs to the front! Ill sort the rest of you out after I'v given this lot their rooms." Terwyn called a few minutes later. Vera and Talyn made their way to the front of the group along with Soren, Kira, the two Wolfkin, and two of the Fae. Terwyn eyed them for a moment before pointing to Kira and Soren. "You're a Drakon right?" He asked nodding to Soren, Soren nodded in return. "Right then, you two to room 5 wait for me I have to key you into some wards on the balcony." They nodded and headed to the door with a bronze number 5 on its surface, he turned back to the group. "You two to room 1" He snapped pointing at the Fae, looking at the Wolfkin he frowned slightly. "Room 2" He said waving them away. His gaze landed on Talyn and Vera finally. "A Gryphon?" he hmm'ed, looking thoughtful. "Room seven. Same as room five wait for me." Vera shot off, excited, Talyn follow far more sedately as Terwyn continued to sort out the other students. Room seven was on the opposite side of the fire place from room 5 where Kira and Soren stood waiting next to the door for Terwyn. The other students that had been assigned room had already vanished inside. Only the four of them waited as the rest slowly vanished, Terwyn continued pairing the remaining students together, he seemed to be intentionally picking the pairs that were glaring at each other the most.

Talyn sighed as Terwyn vanished into room 5 with Soren and Kira, and cast another look around the room, frowning he spotted a small staircase off to the side by the entrance and followed it upwards with his eyes. A small balcony over looked the room, it was over the door so he hadn't seen it when they came in, the railing was solid though preventing him from looking at what was actually up there. "Brats!" Terwyn snapped making him jump and focus back on his immediate surroundings. Vera snickered softly causing him to send her a wounded look.

"Right come on!" They followed the amused man through the door, a short hall only a few feet long led to a modestly size living room, the far wall held a long balcony with no railing, or door for that matter. Better for takeoff and landing he supposed. Terwyn walked up to the edge of the room and waited for them to catch up. "Right sit still while I key you in." Vera nodded and waited while Terwyn muttered to himself casting something while drawing a few glowing symbols in the air. "Right you can see the balcony now, as well as land."

Talyn frowned at the professor for a moment before speaking up. "Are you going to key me in as well?" He asked, Terwyn glanced at him,

"Why? You can go out on the balcony just fine without being keyed in."

"Im an animagus I'd like to be able to go flying as well." He answered with a shrug. Terwyn blinked at him before rolling his eyes.

"Whatever, get over here." He muttered looking faintly irritated. Talyn stepped over and remained still while he was also keyed in. Terwyn stalked off muttering in what sounded like german. Vera clacked her beak amused once the door closed.

"Frreindly issn't he?" He rolled his eyes and pulled out his wand. Flicking it at the door he incanted a powerful locking spell, a mere alohamora wouldn't undo this spell, not that he was delusional enough to think it would keep out anyone determined.

"Very." He agreed looking back over at her. "Know any good locking spells to add to that?" He asked Vera chirped softly in thought before nodding.

"I know a few I will add them." Raising a claw, the gauntlet on her forearm glowed softly, lines of light tracing their way around it as magic flowed through the molded metal. She spoke in the same language she had to speak to the lizard earlier. Two bolts of light, one soft blue the other yellow leapt away from her and hit the door. "That sshould sssuffice forr now." She said thoughtfully.

"Alright. We should come up with something better later, but hopefully that should work for tonight." He agreed. Vera nodded and glanced around the room curiously. Two doors led off from either side of the small living room, each easily large enough for the gryphon to walk though without trouble. The living room itself was about 20 feet square, with the entire far fall taken up by the long balcony. A simple pair of plain tan couches sat in a V in front of a small fire place along the left hand wall. The walls were bare and the same dark grey of the main common room, with the rough black granite on the floor as well. Talyn walked over to the balcony while Vera began investigate the rooms.

The mountain face dropped sharply away below him for several hundred feet, a harsh, cold wind tugging at his cloths in the twilight. The ocean was rippled in to moonlight to his left the snow speckled mountain curving away to his right. A large cove was visible below the waves crashing against black rocks. A few scraggly pine trees clung to the mountain face below him, stunted and twisted by the storms that must batter the island. Staring out over the black ocean he smiled, he was really here, he was really going to do this. Before it hadn't really seemed real, but now, standing here on his first night it finally sunk in. A loud hoot sounded above him, bringing him out of his thoughts, he glanced up and raised an arm so Hedwig could land. "Hello girl. How did you know where I was?" He asked her while carefully scratching the feathers under her chin. Hedwig just chirped and all but melted under the scratching, he figured she was also keyed into the wards since she was tied to him.

"Talyn?" He turned to look at Vera a grin still firmly in place on his face. Vera raised an eye brow at him before chuckling. "If you don't mind I would like you to take the left hand room, the fire place is open on both sides, and fire and feathers are never a good combination." Talyn quirked an eye brow up but nodded.

"Alright." He agreed stepping back inside, the cold wind cut off instantly when he passed the outer walls, a good thing too there didn't seem to be any kind of shutters to go over the door. Hedwig chirped studying the gryphon curiously. Vera cocked her head to the side looking intently at the owl. Hedwig twitched and half flared her wings in surprise. Talyn ducked to avoid getting chromed in the head. Vera trilled before focusing on Talyn while Hedwig calmed down.

"You did not tell me you had a bondbirrrd." she eyed him annoyed. Talyn just blinked at her confused, and shot a look at Hedwig.

"Hu?" His ever intelligent response had Vera frowning.

"Wherrre arre you frrom again?" She asked.

"I never said where I was from." He answered eyeing her warily, as much as he was starting to like her he didn't want to give away his origins.

"You don't have to give me yourrr adrress just the continent you live on." She drawled

"Oh, um Europe." He answered, she hmm'd thoughtfully studying the owl for a long moment.

"You cannot ssspeak to herr corrrect?"

"Should I be able to?" He asked mystified, Vera nodded.

"She is a Tayladrras Bondbirrrd. I sssupposse she could be dessscended from ssome of the wild bondbirrrds if you trruly did not know what ssshe iss. Although... Did you buy herrr?" At his nodded Vera hissed softly clacking her beak.

"I will have to tell the Silverrrs that someone may be stealing bondbirds again. You arrre not at fault, but it would not be the firrst time the Eurropeansss have done thisss, if you wish I will teach you how to speak with her later." Talyn stared at her dumbfounded and shot a look at Hedwig, she stared back and chirped softly. He had always know that Hedwig was different, but what the hell was a Tayladras Bondbird?

"Um...ok? But what exactly does that mean? That she's a bondbird?" he asked hesidantly. Vera blinked before shaking her head in exasperation.

"I sssuppose you wouldn't know, would you? If your from Eurrope." Talyn rolled his eyes but nodded all the same.

"I'm working on I ok? I only got the hell out of there last month." He grumbled Vera snorted.

"Indeed, you will have to read up on history. For now assume that if they said its true, its actually false. As for Bondbirds they are as old as gryphons. They are meant to be far more intelligent then their normal counterparts, as well as having the ability to speak in their partners mind. You have likely never learned to speak to anyone in such a manner so you could not hear her. As I said I will teach you, but not tonight." Vera turned to head into the right hand room. "I need to modify my room a fair bit to make it comfortable. We can continue speaking on this tomorrow if you want?"

"Uh...yeah, thanks Vera!" He called after her. Sighing he glanced back at the other door and headed in to take a look. The bedroom was about 10 feet square with a plain bed pushed up against the far right hand wall. A heavy looking desk sat across from the fireplace, which like its mirror in the main room was made of smooth black granite.

Setting his bag down he pulled out his trunk and enlarged it, rooting through the contents for a book of household charms he had snagged on one of his many trips to Diagon, pulling it free he flipped it open and began looking up spells.

Half an hour later the walls were a pale blue and the desk was larger taking up the entire wall across from the door, the bed looked almost the same only now rather than a simple white quilt it was covered in a deep navy blue one. He would have liked to think that it was just a bit fluffier, but transfiguration had never been his strong suit, he could do it but it just wasn't worth the trouble usually. He still managed to transfigure a pair of socks into a pair of dark blue rugs to cover the cold stone floor. One went in front of the bed the other before the fireplace.

He carefully unshrunk Hedwigs cage and set it on the edge of the desk that butted up next to the bed, the owl hooted softly and took off from his shoulder, landing lightly and surveying the room once before tucking her head under her wing and going to sleep. Talyn smiled faintly before going about unpacking the rest of his trunk. Forget ink and quills, he had gotten normal notebooks and pens this year. No more parchment or spilled ink! The planner Hermonie had forced him to buy also joined the other supplies on the desk, along with his schedule to turn in the next day. Sitting down he flipped the folder open and reviewed his choices once more.

It wasn't until around midnight that he finally decided on what to take, he just had to remind himself that this was going to take time, Rome wasn't built in a day and all that. He chose Runic Magic because of the way Hermonie was always going on about her own Rune class at Hogwarts, you could build wards with it, who knew what Snow Points curriculum would add to that. Blood Magic sounded interesting and was wildly different from anything he'd done before, and the summer had uncovered a skill at Potions he would have never thought he had so he threw that in there as well. Combat which seemed to be a combination of DADA and nonmagical fighting was added, and Death Magic a prerequisite to both Soul magic and Necromancy, his whole reason for coming here. Considering he had lived under a rock for most of his life, he also chose a World History class. It was a good layout he decided considering his list. He smirked wondering what Dumbledore would think of the school year he had lined up for himself.

Xxxxxxxxx

"Talyn!" Talyn cracked his eyes open and glared at the door, Vera grinned at him from the entrance. "Get up! You sssaid you wissh to fly yessterday! It is a beautiful day, I want to see how good you are!" He stared at her faintly annoyed, but hauled himself out of bed all the same, he couldn't pass up flying.

Vera was all but bouncing when he finally left his room, he shot her an amused look, and with a grin of mischief took a running jump off the balcony without transforming. Vera screeched in surprise, and looked over the side after him horrified. Talyn laughed, the roar of the wind stealing the sound, but only let himself drop for a few dozen feet before changing and snapping his wings open. His shoulders protested the strain, but he held his wings slightly arched, and leveled out a hundred feet or so off the ground. Vera flashed passed him, forcing him to roll out of the way. He let out a roar and rowed his wings, gaining hight before twisting into a dive. He folded his wings and tagged Vera's tail as he whipped past.

The Gryphon gave an outraged screech and tore after him. Talyn grinned to himself and flapped harder, trying to stay ahead of Vera. Gaining more altitude he was almost back up to the hight of their balcony, the gryphon hot on his he flew, keyed into the wards now as was, he could now see the true form of the school that jutted out of the mountain. Gleaming white towers rose out of the mountain side like they had simply sprouted there. Seven in all rose in an arc along the western face of the mountain. Below them in the center was the entrance hall and the balcony they had landed on when they arrived, its two small towers framing the entrance. Everything was almost glowing in the light of the rising sun. Curving around he could see their balcony each tower must have been the dorms for a specific year. Theirs was the far northernmost tower.

He dodged between the mountain and a tower gaining more hight as he caught the wind coming in over the ocean and using it to kite higher, almost flying backwards in the process. He glanced around having lost Vera before instinct screamed at him to move, he folded his left wing and rolled away from the mountain. An explosion of tan feathers flashed past missing by inches. He completed the barrel roll and leveled out to see Vera pulling up a few hundred feet below him, he shook his head and turned back towards the tower. As much fun as playing tag out here was, he was still tried from the flight in, even if it had been the day and a half since they arrived. He flared his wings as he came up to the balcony braking and dropping down to land like he had seen Hedwig do so many time before, he met with only partial success as he failed to get one of his hind feet all the way on the ledge and nearly slid off the side.

He flailed his wings for a moment to regain his balance and pulled his foot up onto solid ground. Snorting at his fantastic landing he stalked into the living room, a clatter on the stone behind him heralded Vera's arrival, he looked back at the grinning gryphon. "You arrre verry fasst!" she congradualted. "but not asss fasst ass me! You turrn betterrr though! That iss the only rreasson I did not catch you!" Talyn smirked at her, the expression no doubt odd on the tigers face. With a light tug on his magic his form blurred back to human.

"If you say so, iv only been able to actually fly for a few months now, Im still figuring everything out. " He answered with a shrug. Vera stared at him dumbfounded.

"A few monthssss? And you fly like _that_?" She demanded, he blinked at her taken aback.

"Um, yeah, I used fly on a broom though, I was pretty good..." Vera just shook her head and cut him off.

"It isss not the same! Flying on one of thosse contraptionss iss nothing like ussing yourrr own wingss!" She argued, he just shrugged.

"Ok? I barely needed any instruction to learn how to fly even then though. The teacher said I was a natural I guess that was true whether I was using a broom or wings." she sighed.

"The morre I learrrn about you Talyn, the strranger you get." she deadpanned Talyn resisted the urge to cringe, he had been hoping to not be the odd one this year, what with being probably the most mundane person attending the school. No such luck.

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Quetzal - well how did you like it?


	10. Onwards!

**Edit Mar 6 2013**

**Chapter 10: Onwards!**

Talyn sat down at the breakfast table with a smile, he had dropped his list of classes off with a teacher at the door to the great hall so he was all set now. "So I saw you went flying this morning." Kira commented, Talyn grinned and nodded.

"Hell yes, can't keep me out of the air for long and Vera wanted to see how good I am."

"And?"

"Apparently I can turn quicker then she can but she's still faster then me." He explained Kira nodded before taking a bite of sausage.

"Id be more surprised if you were faster." Kira answered with a shrug.

"Oh? Why?" Talyn was honestly puzzled, how could Kira know just at a glance which of them would be outright faster?

"Simple did you see the shape of her wings? And the marks on her face? She a falcon type gryphon, well technically their called Gryfalcons. Even if that is a type of falcon itself." She added looking thoughtful. "But anyways, she gets her speed from the falcon design. There's two basic groups of Gryphons, the broad wings which are eagles and hawk based and the Gryfalcons which are based on a kind of prairie falcon they think. All the gryfalcons are descended from the same ancestor seeing as the mage that created them only created one gryfalcon before his death. Her name was Zhaneel I think. Oddly enough the genetics don't seem to cross with the two breeds as far as the type goes. The chicks are either broad wings or gryfalcons, but the rest of the genetics seem to work the same as normal." She finished just as Vera came up to the table, a floating platter with half a dozen whole salmon on it following her.

"That iss trrrue." She agreed, having heard the tail end of the explanation. The platter landed on the table with a light thud and Vera carefully picked up a fish before swallowing it whole. Once she could talk again she continued. "The only otherr main difference iss a gryphons clawsss." She held out her own hand to demonstrate. "I have shorter claws and longer fingers, this makes it easier to pick things up I can even write if I wish. The broad wings have claws like an eagle, and must have more assistance to get things done." With that she turned her attention back to her breakfast and began snapping up the other five fish. Talyn looked back down at his own plate thoughtfully, he would have to tell Hermione about this! She would no doubt find it fascinating. He paused, a forkful of eggs halfway to his mouth, speaking of Hermione he hadn't checked the journal yet! She might have sent a response by now! Quickly swallowing his bite of scrambled eggs, he reached down and dug through his backpack until he found the messenger journal and tugged it out. As he had thought it was glowing softly.

"Why is your book glowing?" Soren asked bemused. Talyn glanced at him, hesitating for a long moment before answering.

"Its a messenger journal, I may have left Europe but I still do have one friend there, I didn't want to lose contact with her and sending Heddwig halfway around the planet with a letter seemed a bit stupid. I told her last night that I had gotten here in one piece, its glowing because she sent a response."

"Is that so?" A voice drawled behind them, making everyone jump. Looking behind them they came face to face with the headmistress herself. She studied Talyn for a long moment before holding out her hand. Talyn winced and handed her the journal hoping she only looked at the most resent entries. Hermione hadn't mentioned his name directly lately but she certainly had before. The headmistress took the journal and flipped it open to the very first page and glanced through it, scanning each entry. One eye brow steadily rose as she looked through everything. Reaching the finally entry she favored Talyn with a thoughtful look and cast several spells on the book before holding it out. Talyn took it back watching her warily.

"I would have preferred if you had entered the school under your original name rather then your new one." She said after a moment making Talyn cringe as she continued on. "But given who you are its understandable that you would wish to avoid that, it certainly explains your rather particular reading in the death magic test, i'll inform your teacher, I'm sure he'll be fascinated." Talyn wanted to groan but nobly refrained, the headmistress smirked seeming to read his thoughts. " As it is you may continue to use the journal but I have put several spells on it to prevent any sensitive information from being taken from it. Your sister will be unable to tell anyone about what she reads from there nor will anyone be able to read the messenger but her. Due try to stay out of trouble Mr. _Ashton_, I would hate to have to expel you for revealing things about Snow Point that you shouldn't." With that she turned and headed to the large head table that had replaced the dais at some point last night.

Talyn watch her go for a long moment before letting out the breath he'd been holding, and letting his head hit the table with a thud and a groan. Kira and Soren grinned while Vera glanced between Talyn and the Headmistress, no doubt wondering who exactly Talyn was to elicit a response like that. "So...hows your sister then?" Soren asked brightly. Talyn slowly raised one arm, and flipped him off. Kira sniggered at the Drakon's wounded expression.

Talyn sighed and picked his head back up, so much for remaining completely anonymous, he thought annoyed. At the very least the headmistress had chosen not to blow his cover, she would have his undying gratitude for that. He tiredly flipped the journal open and began to read Hermione's message.

X X X

Lunch was barely over and Talyn only halfway to the library when the day decided it wasn't done with him yet. "So what makes you think a pathetic **human** like you have **any** chance of making it here?" Taunted a voice from behind him, Talyn paused with a raised eye brow, and turned to look at the speaker. The other was tall, easily towering a foot of his own (unfortunately) diminutive form. The bright blue hair and matching blue eyes gave it away in instant.

"Oh, Nick wasn't it?" He asked boredly, the teens eyes flashed in suppressed rage.

"Thats Nicolai Jacques to you human!" he spat, baring short fangs at him. Talyn eyed him curiously, wondering what exactly 'Nicky' was.

"Right...and what exactly are you?" He asked drily. Nick smirked.

"Me? I am something far greater then you could ever **hope** to be human! I am a Pantharian! My kind are the Kings of the Jungle!"

"Never heard of you." Talyn deadpanned. Nick stared at him slack jawed for a moment before snarling and lunging. Talyn snapped his wand sharply, having drawn it while the other was distracted, and cast the same shield he had used on the beach.

"Contego!" He snapped, only to blink in shock at Nick who had changed mid jump into a white panther. In hindsight he should have guessed something of that nature was going to happen. Talyn pivoted dragging the shield around as the cat kicked off it and twisted to dive around the side. He toyed for a moment with the idea of changing into tiger form and seeing what the ass thought of that, but thought better of it, Nick probably had **far** more experience fighting in that form. Even if the tiger was bigger he would still probably loose.

With a twist and stab Talyn forced the shield away from himself, using it as a battering ram to send the cat flying down the hall. Quickly dispelling the shield (he really needed to learn to cast more then one spell at a time) he cast one of his newest spells.

"Attero Glaicius!" He snapped moving his wand in a slight arcing swipe from shoulder hight on the left and down to the right. In hindsight he really should have gone with something he'd actually had a chance to practice. The spell worked, if barely, the resulting spikes that shot down the hall to the quickly recovering cat were more like a hail of razor sharp toothpicks then the railroad spikes they were supposed to be. However getting hit with a few dozen tooth picks moving at high speed is still going to hurt no matter how big they were supposed to be.

The panther yowled in pain as the ice needles hit, digging in deeply, he spun around enraged and charged down the hall. "crap." Talyn winced and spun his wand again this time in a perfect circle followed by a an upward flick. "Aranea constrixi!" this time the spell worked far better, a net of sticky white threads burst from his wand catching the cat head on and wrapping around him. Nick yowled in outrage and struggled to bite and claw his way free. "Stupefy!" The cat went limp in his prison.

Talyn eyed him warily, that could have ended VERY badly for him, he knew that well. Stepping around the immobilized and unconscious cat he continued his trek down the hall and to the library. Better read up on more spells, he doubted Nicky would be letting him off that easily a second time.

X X X

The stare was really beginning to bother him. Nick had spent the last hour staring at him silently from across the common room, the creepy part was that he didn't seem to be all that pissed. Instead Talyn felt more like an exotic bug under a microscope.

He had been prepared for a confrontation of some kind when the shapeshifter had turned up about an hour after he had left the library. Even if he couldn't attack him in the common room yelling and threats seemed likely at the least. But no, he just continued to study him. Vera finally broke the faintly uncomfortable silence that had overtaken the study table.

"What happened?" She asked, Talyn glanced up at her from his book.

"He decided to attack me and I knocked him out, lucky shot really." he answered Vera nodded thoughtfully.

"Be careful, he may be trrrying to lull you into a falssse sssensse of ssecurity." she answered after a moment, glancing at Nick. Talyn nodded but he for one wasn't sure about that, he had a very good instinct for when someone wished him harm of some kind, and for whatever reason he wasn't getting that particular vibe from Nick anymore. That could always change but for now he was happy to forget the fight happened unless Nick made an issue of it.

"I will, how are the wards coming?" He answered Vera clacked her beak thoughtfully before shrugging.

"Well enough I think, we need make ssure therre iss an alarrm to alert uss if the wardss fall. We much asssume that _sssomeone_ iss going to get thrrough them, if nothing elsse we musst know if ssomeone has been in the rooms." Talyn nodded, he liked that idea.

"When do we want to cast the first set?" He asked Vera titled her head to the side.

"Tomorrow I think, and we mussst each casst half of them, it will be harderrr to brreak them with differrent kindss of magic being ussed to form different layersss."

"How so?" He asked, puzzled.

"The sssame sspell casst by two people of differrrent speciesss arre subtly differrrent, if makes no rreal differrrence in thingsss like combat magic and sssuch, but wardss rrrequire far more precisssion to break. The varying formsss thereforrr take sslightly differrent approachesss to break without sssetting them off. The idea isss to rrrandomly alternate the layersss with different castersss and hope you trrrip up anyone trrying to get thrrough them." The gryphon explained, Talyn stared at her for a moment a bit startled, he wouldn't have thought the kind of tiny difference she was talking about would make a significant impact!

"Hu." He answered after a moment. Vera sighed and shook her head pityingly.

"What are they _teaching _you people overrr in Europe?" She asked exasperatedly.

"Not much it would seem..." He deadpanned before pulling out his messenger journal and telling Hermonie about this latest revelation.

X X X

6 days later

The atmosphere in the great hall was almost absurdly tense as the first years waited for the arrival of the older students, the rest of the week had passed without to much more fan fair. Everyone was to busy getting ready for the older students to really pick all that many fights, but now the grace period was over, and the real challenge was about to begin. In light of that all the first years had seemed to come to an unspoken agreement and had clustered themselves at the tables by the wall closest to the doors, better to be next to people on your own level if you were going to having some kind of disagreement, then to find yourself surrounded with nothing but senior students when they suddenly decided they didn't like you.

"How do they even get here?" Asked Soren curiously. " I mean do they have to fly in every year like we did?" Vera shook her head no.

"No, I do not know how it is done, but I know they do not fly here." A loud chime prevented further speculation as the clock reached 7pm and a loud commotion erupted outside the great hall. Everyone exchanged surprised looks as people began to filter into the hall. Looks were thrown their way as the older students filtered into the room. Talyn eyed them a bit bemused, if he had thought his own class was exotic he hadn't seen anything yet. He could barely identify a fourth of the species walking into the room and even that was tentative at best.

A fairly good number, about a third, looked to be more or less humanoid. Extra limbs or odd coloration put them apart, only a few looked almost completely human. They were probably shape shifters of some sort. Of the others, the only ones he could identify were a pair of Centaurs, and another three fey.

It only took about twenty minutes for everyone to get settled before the headmistress appeared on the stage at the front of the room. She looked over the group before smirking.

"Welcome back students, I'm glad to see so many have survived to return this year. This year here at Snow Point will prove to be interesting I'm sure, the second level tracking class and the fourth level combat class will be having a special assignment. Thanks to some _very_ lucky first years we have discovered that a group of Wrysa have been snatching students attempting to reach the school for at least the last 6 years. We lost 6 students to them this year before they were spotted when the final group to be attack set off a flare that we happened to notice. Your teachers will be telling you more about your assignment, but you will be assisting in locating the Wrysa so they can be eliminated." a brief mutter when up from the older students and more looks were shot towards the first years. Adriana waited until the muttering died down before continuing. "you will not be expected to deal with the Wrysa yourselves, but accidents happen which is why the combat class is being assigned as well. Now for a few less dramatic announcements, I hope our vampiric students will actually remember the rules for feeding on other students this year, id hate to have to kill any of you for breaking them again." She smiled dangerously at a someone Talyn couldn't see.

"Lastly the death magic class has the lucky opportunity to study a very rare occurrence, however due to security concerns you will have to sign a contract agreeing to not share the nature of the subject with anyone outside the class without the permission of professor Alexander." Talyn relaxed slightly when she mentioned the contract, for a second there he thought she was going to blow his cover to the class, but a contract he could deal with, who knows maybe they would finally figure out how he had survived all those years ago. "that is all for now, I won't keep you from your meal any longer, you will find you class schedules in your rooms in the morning as usual." with that she left out the same side door she had on the first day.

X X X

(Hogwarts)

"Hermione! I need your notes for herboligy!" Ron whined appearing at her side. Hermione calmly ignored him, she was sitting next to the fire in the common room with a book on advanced wards, and really didn't have time to deal with his idiocy today. She was trying to figure out if there was any information on wards in the library related to Harry's most recent discovery.

As it was Ron had been harassing her all week, she was beginning to think Dumbledore may have put him up to it, trying to get him close to her again incase Harry contacted her. Not that it would work. She just hoped they didn't resort to anything particularly moronic to get her cooperation.

"Hermione?"

"No." She answered flatly, Ron scowled.

"Come on Hermione! I need those notes!"

"Then you should have been paying attention in class and taken your own shouldn't you?" she drawled, Ron huffed.

"But you always let me and Harry copy your notes!" He argued, Hermione rolled her eyes.

"I let Harry copy my notes _once_ after the whole SNAFU with the stone, he had a real excuse, your just a lazy little shit so stop asking Weasley." Ron stared at her dumbfounded, his tiny brain apparently having difficulty understanding 'no' no matter how she phrased it.

"But I need the notes!" He finally repeated, "Your my girlfriend your supposed to let me barrow your stuff!" Hermione froze utterly still, the others still in the common room turned to watch, no one had any doubts that this was going to be spectacular. Ron had been steadily digging his grave a little deeper every day, but this was the straw that broke the camels back. After a long moment Hermione calmly closed her book and set it on the couch next to her before turning to look at Ron, her face utterly expressionless.

"Excuse me?" She asked quietly. Ron blinked stupidly at her, not comprehending the danger he was in.

"Hu?"

"Thats what I thought," She answered flatly before whipping her wand out and cutting loose. Within moments the common room had a new rug, a particularly ugly purple and orange monstrosity. Hermione calmly studied her handy work for a moment before picking her book up and continuing to read. Honestly the little shit was never going to learn.

Up in his office Dumbledore frowned at Hermione's actions. He would have thought she would latch back onto her only other friend once given the opportunity. But it would appear he had misjudged Grangers and Weasley's relationship. Without Mr. Potter to hold them together, Granger at least didn't seem to want _anything_ to do with the boy. Which was problematic, the brat was helping him only because he'd been promised money and getting the muggleborn girl as his girlfriend. This was going to take a bit more work, of that he was certain, but it would pay off in the end.

Potter wouldn't be able to resist contacting his friends in some way sooner or later, and he needed to be watching when the time came to get the boy back were he was supposed to be. They couldn't afford anymore delays.

X X X


	11. It's Time

Bane145 got the 1000th alert

So anyways chapter 11 here, lots of magic gets explained here so hopefully its not too technical. I swear I was pulling my hair out designing the death magic class. Hopefully it actually makes sense, I had Kit look at it and she said it was alright so hopefully its alright for everyone else.

Also I have finally discovered proof that Miranda fairgold does in fact still exist! For those of you who don't know who that is, she wrote the best harry potter goes to another school story in the history of everything...then left the story at a cliffhanger after 2 1/4 of a trilogy right as things were coming to the big world ending battle. She hasn't updated in something like 3 years. So since she has apparently read my story and liked it enough to favorite it I would like to request that she continue the Arken series. PLEASE...pretty please? P_P

ONWARD!

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Chapter 11 - It's Time - Imagine Dragons

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**BOOM! **

Talyn shrieked in surprised and reflexively snapped a shield over his bed as the room was rocked by an explosion, he could hear Vera screeching across the apartment while he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Were they under attack? His sleep fogged mind wondered wildly as the last tremor faded away. No, no, that the noise had been muffled, so the explosion hadn't been near them, but still! Was that their idea of a wake up call here?

Groaning he pried himself out of bed, wand held tightly in his hand, he was glad he had decided to keep it under his pillow or he would probably be trying to dig it out from under his bed right about now. Hesitating he made his way to the bedroom door and listened for a moment before opening it after hearing nothing but Vera cursing is several languages. A quick glance told him that aside from a few books having been knocked off the shelf he had transfigured two days before, nothing seemed to be wrong with the room.

"Vera?" He called, the cursing cut off and within moments Vera was peering out her own door at him.

"You wouldn't happen to be responsible for that bang would you?" She asked sourly, her eyes promising pain. Talyn shook his head no.

"Hell no, any idea what could have happened?" He asked, Vera clacked her beak in thought before shrugging.

"Perhaps some of the upper years couldn't wait to start trying to kill each other?" She asked faintly amused. Talyn snorted and allowed himself to relax a hair before glancing at the clock on the wall. 5:30. Breakfast didn't even start till 7. He shot Vera a grin as something occurred to him.

"Wanna bet that the headmistress is _not_ a morning person?" He asked, Vera stared at him for half a second before chuckling.

"Indeed! Hopefully she will exact some revenge for those of us who do not appreciate being awoken before dawn?" Talyn nodded still amused before sighing.

"Well, might as well get ready, I'm sure as hell not going to be able to go back to sleep after a wake up call like _that_." Vera nodded.

"Indeed, you can go first." She agreed before turning back to her room. Talyn shot a look out at the dark sky beyond the balcony, the sky just beginning to glow on the horizon. Heading back into his room he grabbed a change of cloths before heading back into the living room and opening the door that they had missed at first, hidden in an alcove as it was, the bathroom was small. Well, as small as it could be given that it needed to be big enough for a gryphon. A large pool was sunk into the middle of the room, Vera had explained that it was fed by a spring. They had a similar system in her home, all Talyn really cared about was that he had access to a fantastic hot tub for when he inevitably got the shit beaten out of him and needed to soak out the bruises.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"Well I guess that explains what the blast this morning was from..." Vera commented as they came to a blood spattered section of hallway, half of which was caved in. Talyn could only nod as he eyed the destruction.

"Think its safe enough to squeeze by or should we try and go around?" He asked, Vera studied the half collapsed hall for a moment before shrugging and casting a shield around herself before walking through the rubble strewn across the floor, keeping a close eye on the cracked celling. Talyn stared at her for a moment before sighing and casting his own shield before picking his way across.

"So whats your first class today?" He asked as they neared the great hall.

"I have history and combat today, you?" She answered as they finally rounded the last corner and the large doors of the great hall came into sight.

"Death magic and potions." He answered.

"Why on earth do you want to take _Death magic?" _Vera asked incredulously Talyn shrugged.

"I have my reasons, Vera. Its not just a passing fancy either, I need to know it." Vera studied him for a moment before nodding slowly.

"I suppose, but please be carful. Magics of that nature are very dangerous even at the best of times."

"Oh I don't doubt _that_." he responded with a laugh. "Ill be carful, don't worry so much."

xxxxxxx

Talyn glanced around in surprise as he entered the potions classroom, it was nothing like the dark, dank dungeon that Hogwarts used. Although windowless, the room was brightly lit by almost a dozen of the glowing balls that lit the rest of the school. The desks were some kind of polished stone, easier to clean he figured, what with spilled potions being unable to seep into the material.

"One student to a table please." Talyn glanced up sharply not having seen anyone else in the room a moment before. Sitting at the desk in front of the room, that only a second ago he had been sure was empty, was a youngish looking woman. She appeared to be human, her hair was a dark brown with a pair of blond stripes running through it, her eyes were a normal dark brown. She smirked at the students puzzled looks and waved at them. "Are you going to sit down, or just stare at me all day?" she asked. A rapid flurry of movement later and the 6 students where in their spots. Talyn glanced around noting that only two of the others were from his year.

One of the faye, and the seer Wolfkin, the professor quirked an eye brow up at the Wolfkin who just grinned. The professor rolled her eyes and looked back at the rest of the class. "My name Is Aldora, I will be teaching you beginners potions. Now I'm sure someone of you are beyond beyond the basics which is what we will be working on today. I will be giving you a series of potion you are to brew, if you think the potion is beyond you abilities do _not_ attempt to create it. The point of this is to help me figure out exactly where you each are in your studies, and I'd like to avoid any explosions on the first day. If you are unable to brew a potion I want you to write at least half a page on why you couldn't. I expect you to turn in those reports along with samples of the potions you finished at the end of class." she flicked her wrist at the board and neat writing appeared on it. On the far side of the board was a list of six potions. Talyn recognized the first 2 and the third sounded vaguely familiar. Next to the list were the instructions for the first two potions. "Ingredients and cauldrons can be found in the draws under your desks. Start now." Aldora sat back down and watched them begin to check the drawers and find out what was where.

Talyn studied the first set of instructions, it was a simple boil cure, the first potion he had ever learned. Reading the instructions through once he stepped back and started checking the drawers. The largest one held two different small cauldrons. He pulled out the basic brass one and set it on the desk before starting his hunt for ingredients. A few minutes later several jars and boxes set beside the cauldron along with several knives and a pestle.

Talyn hesitated eyeing the tools for a minute before casting a detection charm on the cauldron, he had been forced to learn it after years of dealing with Malfoy and his constant sabotaging attempts. The cauldron glowed a faint yellow, he shot a look up at the professor only to see her looking on in approval. So there was more to this test then just if they could follow instructions correctly, he sighed and cast another spell to determine what was on the cauldron before banishing it once he determined it was inert and wouldn't do anything weird because of additional magic. It hadn't been anything dangerous but once water and heat had been added to the cauldron it would have sent up a cloud of gas that would have dyed him yellow for a few days.

Talyn went on and checked all the ingredients and ended up asking the teacher for a different box of cattail root as what he had was slightly rotted. Serval other students had done the same, as they began preparing their ingredients before starting their cauldrons boiling. An outraged screech behind him alerted him to the fact that someone hadn't checked their cauldron first. A glance showed him a now bright yellow faye, he stifled a laugh and went back to his potion. Carefully adding and stirring in all the right places once he had the water at the right temperature.

Twenty minutes later he was looking at a near perfectly brewed boil cure, carefully pouring a dose into a vial for the professor he nearly jumped out of his skin she spoke and turned out to be standing right next to his table. He had been so absorbed in brewing that he hadn't noticed her approach.

"This is very good," Aldora commented studying the potion intently. "Good enough for the hospital wing, ill take the rest of this alright? Unless you'd like to keep it?" Talyn shook his head no, and watched as the potion was poured into a large jar and taken back to the front of the room.

Quickly banishing the rest of the potion in the cauldron he looked up to the next potion and continued. Three more times he had to get different ingredients because what he had was bad, but now on the fourth potion he was sweating, carefully stirring he added a beetle wing every third stir and backed off on the twelfth stir. The potion simmered before turning dark green, it was done. He breathed a sigh of relief. That was it for him he only needed to glance at the instructions for the fifth potion to know he'd be blowing something up if he tried it. Sitting down he pulled out a notebook and started writing, occasionally glancing up at the board to double check the instructions.

A sudden hiss made him look up while simultaneously casting a shield charm, the student in front of him( a strange boy who looked more bird then human) jumped back just in time for his cauldron to boil over while spitting a spray of neon blue liquid across the room. Shields flared up around each desk deflecting the spay away from the other students. Talyn blinked but kept his own spell up just in case. Aldora cursed and cast a multitude of spells on the hissing cauldron, neutralizing the unstable potion.

"Well, that was refreshing." She drawled and eyed the student sprawled in the middle of the room. "Now you get to write me two pages on where exactly you screwed up I expect it on my desk next class." The boy nodded shakily before picking himself up off the floor and approaching his cauldron warily as though expecting it to attack. Talyn considered animating the cauldron for a second before deciding he shouldn't risk pissing off Aldora during class, he remembered what the headmistress had said about fucking around in the potions class.

"Well I suppose we can call it a day there." Aldora called from the front making everyone look up, other then bird boy everyone had given up already and was in the process of writing. "Most of you are more or less moderately good, although Ashton and Mearra are a bit better. Mearra will be moved to the next class up but Ashton will be staying. Your good but you need to go over some of the basics a bit more, there seems to be some rather large holes in your education." Talyn nodded not offended, it was amazing he had done so well even after his review this summer. "Right then, put the rest of your supplies away and leave your papers and test vials on my desk. After that your free to go."

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The Death magic classroom wasn't as open as the potions room. There were no windows, and it wasn't dark, but it certainly had a sense of gloom to it. Talyn glanced around before picking a seat at the front of the room. He couldn't afford to miss anything in this class, it was his spring board to ending voldamort once and for all. Five other students entered the room over the next few minutes taking seats around the room, no one wanted to sit right next to anyone else, to much chance of getting cursed.

A door at the front of the room creaked open as soon the last one sat down, a rasp of scales on stone heralding the teachers arrival. Talyn frowned slightly studying the creature as he coiled his long black scaled tail up and looked over the class. The professor looked a bit like Kira in her Lamia form, but not only was the color different but so was the shape of his head. He still looked more or less human but he didn't have hair instead a frill of black spines covered his head and ran in a ridge down his back. They seemed to be flexible curving slightly as they draped down over his back. And unlike Kira his scales didn't end at his waist except for a scattering on arms and face, his whole upper body and face was covered in slightly glossy black scales. Like Kira he wore a vest over his chest, his was made of dark grey leather.

"For those of you who are no doubt wondering, I am a Naga." The professor drawled making Talyn wince slightly at having been caught staring. "My name is Alexander Devaran, you may call me Alexander or Professor Devaran. You are of course here to learn Death magic. Do not make the mistake of thinking you will be raising the dead or exploring the other side in this class, that is reserved for the Necromancy class. Here you will be getting a basic grounding in how the soul functions as well as how both living and dead souls behave on the living plane. I will be taking you through several rituals and skills you will need to survive if you wish to continue into Soul magic or Necromancy. These techniques will allow your soul to leave you body unharmed and without dieing, as well as allow you to interact directly with spirits." Alexander paused and glanced around.

"Any questions?" When the class remained silent he continued. " Before we begin, I need you all to sign the contract that was mentioned during the welcoming feast, if you do not wish to do so you will be dropped from the class and can take it next year." The other five students grumbled but signed all the same, far to interested to refuse." Good with that out of the way we need to go over the basics of how the Soul is constructed and how it interacts with the body, beginning with the relation between the soul and the magical core." At this he turned and drew a circle on the board. "Now first off, diagrams aside, the soul is not round contrary to what many think, nor does it exist in a specific spot inside the body. The soul is spread evenly throughout you. Think of your body as a cup, your soul is the water in the cup. It conforms to the shape of the vessel it is held in and fills all of the space inside. Everyone following so far?" He glanced back at them and at their nods he drew another smaller circle inside the first. "Your magical core exists within your soul, and does have the defined shape of a sphere that can normally be found somewhere in the chest, the exact location can vary but it is usually held in or near the heart. This is what gave rise to people thinking ones soul is held there and is a sphere. They would mistake their magical core for their soul."

"A magical core is, essentially, both a converter and a battery. Your core draws in magic around you and changes it slightly to match your soul while also storing it. A person magical power is determined both by how quickly your core can absorb and convert magic and by how much you can store. Theoretically even if it takes you a thousand years to absorb the necessary power if your ability to store it is great enough you could fight even the strongest mages. Its this variation that results in mages and normal humans as well as what are in current times know as squibs. A normal human has a magical core just the same as anyone else, without magic you die, end of story. The difference is that a normal humans core is only capable of converting and storing enough power for them to live. A squib however as the same or greater ability to covert magic as a mage but does not have the ability to hold on to that power. In ancient times the strongest of these people were known as Channels. A Channel if properly trained can absorb and covert massive amounts of raw wild power for other uses. They are not however capable of controlling the power they absorb in any way aside from directing it back out of themselves in a stable form. Mages have both the ability to convert significant amounts of magic as well as store it, its the ability to store the magic that allows the control necessary to cast spells."

"Think of it as the difference between a raging river and damed river. The damed river forms a calm pool that can be used to safely do other things like power a generator." Talyn stared at him for a moment before beginning to scribble madly. That was the first actual explanation he had ever been given for how magic actually worked. Hogwarts tended to simple take a 'its magic it works' view and never bothered to explain how beyond the visible effects. A hour passed in much this way, the teacher sketching out diagrams on the board and explaining the general mechanics of the soul and magic. School had never been this fascinating before, he had thought potions was great but this! About an hour and a half through Alexander gave them a 10 minutes break before continuing into the part of class that'd had him worried all morning.

"Now that we've gone over enough of the basics that you'll have some idea of what your looking at we'll take a quick look at the subject of that contract." Alexander took a look in Talyn's direction before continuing. " Now I'm sure you've heard at least something about the chaos thats been going on in the UK." Various snorts and chuckles sounded around the room. "Yes, yes. I know its humorous, but thanks to the UK's stupidity and their "savor' having a brain and getting the hell out of the country your getting a chance to study how he survived the killing curse." Utter silence met the professors words.

Talyn glanced around noting the looks of shock on everyone's faces. "Mr. Ashton if you could come to the front please." Talyn sighed and got up feeling the eyes of everyone in the classroom on him as he walked. "Although he is currently going by another name to avoid being dragged back to the UK, Mr. Talyn Ashton is actually Harry Potter."

"He's actually a student here?" Catcalled a dark haired teen from the back. "I figured he was just going to be a lab rat for us! Not that it matters, theres no way a Brit is gong to survive here even if he did manage to pass the entrance exam!" Talyn gave the speaker a flat look.

"I guess we'll just have to see won't we?" He answered with a shrug. "The fact that I got the hell out of there would suggest that I'm not quite THAT stupid wouldn't it?" Three of the other students nodded in agreement while giving him calculating looks, the guy in the back snorted.

"Right, 10 bucks says you don't make it 2 weeks." He drawled Talyn rolled his eyes and looked back at Alexander.

"Right then everyone here is familiar with the Avada Kedavra curse yes? Can someone tell me why this curse is fatal?" He asked before calling on the girl on the left near the front.

"The curse is fatal no matter where it hits because it gets caught in a persons magical channels and directed straight to a persons soul and magical core. It then breaks the souls connection to the body causing death." She answered. Alexander nodded calmly.

"Close, the Avada Kedavra does indeed travel through the magical channels to directly access the soul, but if all it did was separate the soul from the body, you would get a living soulless body and a disembodied powerless spirit. What the curse does is first break the connection between the magical core and the body. This is because the soul itself is not anchored very tightly to the body, the magical core however is. This is why a body thats been fed on by a Dementor remains alive for a while before finally failing. The soul is removed but the magical core being more strongly anchored remains and keeps the body alive for a time."

"The killing curse works by breaking that connection between the body and magical core allowing it to throw both the soul and magical core out of the body, killing it instantly without leaving a mark. The true danger of this curse is not that it kills, lots of spells kill. The curse can only be blocked by solid objects not connected to the targets magic. If the curse comes in contact with the targets magic in any way is latches on and is directly along your own magic to your core where it takes effects. It doesn't matter what form that magic takes whether its a spell that intersects with the curse or a shield." Alexander smirked seeing he had them all completely engrossed in his speech, it was always nice to know he could still awe a class on the first day.

"Now this is of course why Mr. Ashton's case is so intriguing. We know the curse didn't just come in contact with wild magic, we know thanks to that scar that it came in physical contact with him and wasn't blocked by anything. So how did he survive?"

"I'm going to cast a spell on Mr. Ashton thats going to scan and project a model of his soul and magical cores current condition, and Ill need one volunteer to allow for a comparison." The same girl who had spoken before raised her hand. Alexander nodded and waved her up.

"Now pay attention, I'm going to cast this on Miss. Fairla first." Turning he traced a glowing rune in the air in front of Fairla, it shimmered for a moment before flashing and changing into a glowing ball. Its was layered, with the outer layer being a soft white the inside being gold and a silver ball inside that, branching off the silver ball were threads of silver that extended through the soul to the outer layer. "Now the white represents the body, the gold is the soul, and the silver is the core and the threads connecting the body and magical core are you magical channels. Now for Mr. Ashton."

Once more the rune was traced in the air it shimmered and flashed before resolving itself into another sphere. The whole class went still, and stared dumbfounded.

"What the fuck?" Muttered someone from the back of the room. The outer layer of the sphere was glowing a deep emerald green, the same color as the killing curse. Inside the gold soul was glowing darkly looking more like polished brass then gold, and the silver magical core was glowing like a fallen star the threads that represented his magical channels started off silver before leeching into bright green halfway to the outer layer. But, stuck on the outside of the sphere embedded in the green outer layer like a malignant leech was a black blob. Tendrils like the roots of a plant were spread out over almost half of the surface, not appearing to have penetrated into the soul very much yet.

Talyn stared at the projections in faint horror, trying to figure out what was going on here, the green seemed easy enough to explain, if not in a comforting way, but what the hell was that black..._thing_ on him?

Xxxxxxxxx

Quetzal - annnnnd cut! XD yes I'm evil but I was getting sick of explaining so much technical stuff in one chapter. That why this one took so long I got to it and realized I needed to invent an entire form of magic. Hopefully it came out in a sane way, if you see something that makes no sense please tell me, and ill try and fix my logic with it.

I felt like I might be going a bit to fast by putting this in this soon, but I don't think a theoretical discussion and a diagnostic spell are all that out of the question? It would get everyone interested before dragging them though the inevitable weeks of theory before they get to do anything fun, its just that poor talyn can't be normal and no one was expecting a result like that! And I'm sure you'll be happy to know were actually getting into the plot a bit more now!


	12. Still Frame

Quetzal - whats this? An UPDATE? OR IS IT? *SHIFTY EYES*

XD don't worry I wouldn't do that to you guys. This chapters a bit short only only 7 pages, but I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer and it was a good place to stop.

Fae0306 got the 500th review

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Chapter 12 - Still Frame - Trapt

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Hermione picked at her food rather listlessly. Trying to ignore the chatter going on around her. She had succeeded in avoiding Ron today, she had sat with the first years, and happily answered their many questions and left no room for the irritating red head. Amusingly enough it had taken three days for anyone to notice Ron was missing after she had transfigured him, and another 2 for him to be located and returned to human form.

In her listlessness she didn't catch the smug glint in Dumbledores eyes as she poured out a glass of pumpkin juice. Someone else however, did. Blue eyes narrowed under the table as Crookshanks stared at the headmaster between the tables, he turned to Hermione before he stood up and delicately jumped up on the table. Yelps of outrage sounded as cups were scatters and the pitcher dumped over. The table was stained orange by the spreading puddle of pumpkin juice. Crookshanks hissed and snatched a chunk of chicken from one of the platters before jumping down shaking his paws in irritation. Hermione jumped to her feet apologizing rapidly and vanishing the juice while sending admonishments in the smug cats direction.

Dumbledore barely managed to keep the scowl off his face as the drugged pumpkin juice went flying with the cats jump. He glared at the creature as it dashed off with the bit of chicken. Damn beast, he thought annoyed. It was part Kneazle if he remembered correctly, it had no doubt sensed that something was off with the juice. Kneazle's were irritatingly canny about such things.

Hermione gave crookshanks an exasperated look later after dinner when he jumped up on her bed, purring loudly. "Silly cat. You didn't need to rob the table you know, I would have given you something if you wanted it." Crookshanks cracked an eye open looking faintly amused in that inscrutable way of cats. He tilted his head to the side studying her sleeve before stalking across the blankets and pawing at the wet spot. Hermione studied the Kneazle, puzzled. Glancing at her sleeve she spotted the wet spot at the edge, frowning, she glanced back at the cat. "You didn't really want that piece of chicken, did you?" Crookshanks just continued to stare at her silently. Pulling her wand out of her pocket Hermione cast a detection charm on her sleeve, the wet spot glowed soft blue indicating the presence of some kind of magic. Hermione paled slightly. "Shit." She hissed softly while pulling the robe off and tossing it in the hamper. Hopefully whatever had been in the pumpkin juice couldn't be absorbed through the skin. Pulling on a simple T-shirt she reached into a small box in her trunk and extracted a cat treat feeding it to a very enthusiastic crookshanks. "what would I do without you crook?" she asked with a faint smile, the cat shot her a faintly smug look making her laugh. With a shake of her head she pulled the journal out of its secret compartment in her school bag, it was too important to risk hiding in her trunk.

Hermione stared at the small leather bound journal silently for a long moment wondering if she should tell Harry what had almost happened before deciding against it. He was busy right now. The things he had already started learning were amazing and today was only his first day of actual class! If she said anything he would cut and run off to 'rescue' her, she appreciated the thought, but in the long run she knew that what he was learning was just to important to risk screwing it up now. She slipped the journal back into its spot after making sure there weren't any new messages. Getting up she tugged another robe out of her trunk and swung it on then jogged out of the room, she needed to research more specific detection spells. Especially ones that she could cast surreptitiously.

X X X

Talyn felt rather then saw the professor cast a powerful calming charm at him, he was too busy staring at the black blob, which he realized after a moment was actually pulsing slowly. Talyn twitched starting to hyperventilate even with the powerful calming charm. "What. The. Hell. Is that?" He demanded roughly, not able to tear his eyes away from the sight. Professor Alexander muttered under his breath casting more diagnostic spells on Talyn. "Miss Fairla if you could sit back down." He asked sharply, the girl nodded slowly having a hard time tearing her eyes away from the projection as well as she edged around Talyn and back to her seat.

The professor cursed softly and sighed glancing at the other five students in the room. "Class dismissed I need to talk to the headmistress about this." They nodded, even the dark haired guy from earlier looked concerned. They got up gathering books and notes and filed out of the room. "Mr. Ashton I need you to calm down, you magic is going to start reacting violently if you keep this up." He snapped sharply. Talyn all but snarled at him, the beginnings of true panic edging into his mind. This was _not_ the time to calm down he thought frantically. There was some kind of, kind of _thing_ on him, get it off _get it off GET IT OFF!_

Alexander grimaced and shot another calming charm at the boy while waiting for the headmistress to respond to the alarm he'd set off. Hopefully she would be prompt, but given all the bullshit with trying to track those Wrysa she'd been busy. The door slammed open with a bang only a minute later, Adriana stalked into the room, her purple eyes nearly glowing with restrained power. She frozen staring at the still active diagnostic spell, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "well, well, I knew we were going to be seeing some interesting things out of you Mr. Ashton but this was not quite what I was expecting." she drawled, walking into the room while Alexander cast what must have been his sixth or seventh calming charm on Talyn. " Any ideas as to what it is, Devaran?"

"Some kind of magical leech, its bound itself very effectively into Mr. Ashton's physical form but seems to have only a light hold on his soul. His magic seems to be diverting most of itself to sealing the leech out.

"Can you get rid of it?" Talyn asked tightly, irritated at being ignored. Adriana studied him before looking at the projection again.

"Nothing is ever certain Talyn, and no two cases of soul magic are ever quiet the same, its why the subject is such a difficult one to teach. But given that it doesn't seem to have much of a hold on your soul it would indeed likely be removable yes." A little of the tension went out of Talyn at that statement, but he still couldn't tear his eyes away from the image.

"Where the hell could I have picked something like this up anyway?" Talyn asked after a moment. Adriana looked at him a raised eye brow.

"I should think that should be obvious Talyn. Who do you know who would both practice soul magic and could have exposed you to it?" Talyn flinched hard, he knew, he had just been hoping it could have been something else. Adriana sighed softly and shook her head then stunned Talyn before he could react. Catching him with a levitation spell before he could hit the ground she brought his body over to hover next to her. "I'll put him in the infirmary after I put a few monitoring spells on him. Give him the rest of the day to recover a bit before setting him loose." Devaran nodded, the tip of his tail flicking as he thought.

"I'll have him come in tomorrow after his classes to do a few more diagnostic spells." He paused, a faint wry grinned on his face. "I knew he would be an interesting project for the class, but this isn't quiet what I had in mind." Adriana snorted.

"I think he's going to be an absurd amount of trouble if this is any indication, the first day and something like this already? Its a wonder Britain is still standing."

"At least it will be interesting, yes?" Adriana chuckled and turned to leave, she paused by the door and turned back to the Naga.

"Devaran?"

"Yes?"

"You said that the leech is draining most of Mr. Ashton's magic to keep it contained and from controlling him, correct?"

"Indeed." Adriana gave the unconscious teen a speculative look.

"You of course know that the school registers the general power levels of everyone present on the grounds yes?

"Of course?" He glanced at her a bit puzzled.

"When Mr. Ashton first arrived his power levels were registered as high Master class, potently Adept Class." The Naga gave her an incredulous look.

"Thats impossible! Given how powerful the leech is that boy can't be operating at more them 5 percent of his true power! Probably less! How he even managed to _get_ here is a mystery!"

"Less then five percent, Devaran?" she shot him a smirk, the Naga scowled. "and high level master class to boot even then..." Devaran's eyes widened slightly at what the Headmistress was implying.

"You can't be serious! The scanner probably read his total potential without taking the leech into consideration!"

"But he still made it here, didn't he?" She cut in, a faintly amused look on her face as she turned to leave, the unconscious teen floating at her side.

"But!"

"Its always the unassuming ones," she answered sardonically cutting him off as she left the room, the floating teen in tow.

X X X

Adriana studied the unconscious boy on the hospital bed, she had of course done some digging when she had found out who he was. The things she had found had been worrying to say the least, and if they were to be taken at all seriously then this was just another day in the life for Talyn. She grimaced, thinking about the farce that was Hogwarts. Snow point may be absurdly dangerous by the rest of the worlds standards. But it was a danger every student entered into having at least some idea of what they were setting themselves up for. And even then the dangers were either their own or from the other students. They didn't have dark mages battering down the doors every year, or dementors prowling the grounds. Even if they did it wouldn't be left to the students to deal with, not without excessive back up at least. This brat had been left to deal with situations that would have ended many a fully trained mage. The smartest thing the boy had ever done had been to get out of Europe.

With a shake of her head at the absurdity of it all she countered her stunning spell. Talyn twitched slightly and groaned. "Ashton?" She asked sharply, the boy blinked owlishly before focusing on her. He eyed her for a long moment before sighing.

"Why can't it ever just be a bad dream?" He grumbled earning a dark smile from the headmistress.

"Because that would be _far _to easy, Talyn." She shrugged at the sour look she got in return. "your to meet with professor Devaran tomorrow after your last class, he wishes to try a few other diagnostic charms to determining the nature of the leech on your soul." Talyn shuddered at the memory of that, that _thing._ He jumped when a potion vial appeared in front of his face. Adriana raised an eye brow and continue to hold the vial out. Talyn took it wordlessly and downed it, recognizing calming potion by color alone. He felt his panic dull, the great thing about calming potions was that they did their job without fuzzing up your head.

"Thanks."he said quietly, the headmistress nodded.

"Id advise you brew a few more doses, no doubt you'll need them. Aldora will still have the potions labs open for another 4 hours before dinner."

"Alright… can I use the supplies there or do I need to use my own because its not actually class related?"

"For something that simple you can use our ingredients. Theres a common supply cabinet down there, you can use anything in it. If you can't find it in there you have to get ahold of it yourself." At Talyn's nod she stood up. "you can remain here for another hour if you want. I expect I will be seeing you quiet a bit, I doubt your situation will end quietly." With that she turned and left. Talyn stared after her for a few moments before hauling himself out of the bed and making his way down to the potion labs.

X X X

"Back so soon?" Talyn almost jumped at the voice behind him, spinning around he found Professor Aldora smirking down at him.

"Uh.. Yeah I need to,"

"Brew a calming potion, yes." She finished, Talyn starred at her blankly.

"Can you..?"

"Read your mind? Of course not." She answered, a grin on her face. Talyn wasn't sure what to think about that.

"Then don't worry about it." She drawled, smirking. "the common supply cabinet is over there." She continued pointing off to the front of the classroom. "the ingredients under the desks are for class only. But feel free to use and of the cauldrons or tools there, alright?" Talyn nodded slowly still unsure of the professor. If she wasn't reading his mind then what the hell _had_ she been doing?

"Um, thanks." He answered after a moment, she nodded and headed back out of the room leaving him to his own devices. An hour later he was almost done with the potion when Aldora returned.

"If you add an extra two chamomile flowers in the next step you'll increase the potency of the potion by almost 20 percent." She pointed out thoughtfully. Talyn frowned before nodding.

"Thanks, I'm probably going to need it." He agreed, she laughed.

"No doubts there Mr. Ashton. Your friend Vera was worried about you when you didn't meet her back at your rooms after the death magic class. I told her where you were. She expects a full explanation later, you'll probably have to tell them who you are if you want it to make any sense." Talyn froze, faintly horrified at the idea of having to tell them who he was, he liked being just another person! What if they went all fan-girly on him?

"They won't." Aldora said calmly snagging the dropper of lavender oil and adding the necessary 3 drops to the potion before it was ruined. Talyn blinked rapidly, shaking himself out of his momentary panic.

"How do you do that?" he asked suddenly glaring at her, mildly annoyed.

"What, make a potion?" she shot back.

"No! The whole mind reading thing!"

"Its not mind reading, Talyn." she answered amused.

"Its creepy." He growled, she nodded.

"Most people think so, but you don't really need to worry about it. I'm sure you'll figure it out at some point, its certainly not what it seems." He starred at her for a long moment before sighing and turning back to the potion to add the chamomile flowers.

"If you say so."

X X X

"Therrrre you arre!" Vera's crest feathers were fully flared up, making her look like she had a mohawk as she glared at him. "wherrre have you been! You didn't come back to the common rrroom afterrr classs and then that potionsss professssor turned up and sssaid you had been in the hospital wing! And that you needed to go make a calming potion!" Talyn winced at the shear volume gryphons were capable of, glad there were silencing charms on the rooms.

"Sorry Vera, something came up." The gryphon stared at him utterly silent for a long moment, her eyes narrowed.

"If we arrre to look out forrr each other as we agrrreed I must know wherrre you plan to be so I know if I need to rrrescue you." Talyn winced slightly, she had a point.

"The diagnostic spell in death magic turned up some really weird crap with my soul, the headmistress was called and they knocked me out when I started freaking out. Thats why I needed the calming potion and why I was in the hospital wing. I wasn't actually hurt." Vera gave him a worried look, her feathers beginning to smooth down.

"You do not seem the type to panic overrr nothing Talyn. What did they find?" she asked carefully. Talyn was quiet for a long moment.

"Apparently theres some kind of magical leech or something attached to my soul, its draining away my magic. I'm supposed to head back to professor Devaran tomorrow so he can do some more diagnostic work." He finished with a shrug. Vera stared at him.

"Its, um, not contagioussss or anything. Is it?" she asked after a moment. Talyn snorted.

"Of course not!" He deadpanned before launching a stinging hex at the gryphon, and dove for the balcony as Vera yelped and snapped at him.

"GET BACK HERE BRRRAT!" she screeched lunging after him as he dropped of the edge and transformed.

X X X

Luna hummed softly to herself watching the tiny creatures, invisible to everyone else, dart around the forest. She let her toes sink into the soil and let her magic connect to the earth, listening to the near incomprehensible voice that threaded through the ground. She nodded after several long hours, and patted the unicorn that had laid down next to her to keep her safe while she was listening, not that the creatures of the forest would hurt her. They knew better.

It wasn't time yet, she thought sadly, thinking of Harry. Hidden so far away, yet so close to exactly where he needed to be. He didn't know how to listen yet, but he would learn, he had to.

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Quetzal - well what did you think? Like it hate it? I thought for a long time on Talyns reaction to the horcrux even if he doesn't know what it really is yet, and I have to say most stories give him this, oh ok, kinda reaction to it. I thought reacting like you have just discovered you have a big fat spider on you head and you can't get rid of it to be more reasonable.


	13. Chronicle of Hero's

Quetzal - whats this? ITS ONLY BEEN A WEEK? WHAT BLASPHEMY IS THIS! Haha! I'm sure your all very happy about this. Don't ask why this chapter is out so fast, I'm not sure, it just is. Be happy and read!

aliengirlguy got the 600th review

Ravenfur got the 1000 favorite

(you may both request a spoiler about the rest of the story if you want)

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Chapter 13 - Chronicle of Hero's - Epic Score

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"Runic Magic" The sudden voice made everyone jump. Talyn barely blinked, his most recent does of calming potion was still very strong. The classroom door closed with a sharp snap and a blur of blue and white flitted to the front of the room. A sprite now hovered in front of the desk, he wings beating rapidly like a humming bird to keep her in the air. She was only about three and a half feet tall with long white hair and thin limbs. Soft mint green eyes studied them as she settled onto the desk, her sun dress tumbling over her feet in a wave of gauzy light blue.

"My name is Salera, I will be teaching you runic magic. I would ask that you make sure you are extra carful when taking notes in this class so that you don't accidentally write out active runes. Doing so will at the least result in a minor explosion when they short out. This is only the introductory class so we will be first going over several of the basic runic languages, before learning a number of basic sets you will need get working rune spells. We will also be touching on warding before the end of the year." She stopped there and looked the class over curiously. "Any questions?" she called, silence greeted her, she grinned. "Well then, lets get started."

X X X

Talyn rubbed his eyes tiredly as he wandered into the history classroom with five minutes to spare. Rune magic had certainly rung his poor mind dry. Salera had taken them on a whirlwind tour of all the languages of runes. So much for thinking there were only two like Hermione had studied at Hogwarts. Apparently anything could be used as runes is you knew what you were doing and could charge the symbols with magic, it was just a matter of what worked best with your magic. By definition runes were magically charged symbols that meant something to the maker. Most people only found one or maybe two languages that worked for them, the very best made up their own languages and systems to direct the magic. That was where a number of the oldest runic languages came from, someone had invented their own and then taught it to others.

"Good, you're all here." Talyn blinked shaking himself out of his thoughts, and glanced up at the front of the room before doing a double take. A sphinx stood watching them all with amusement. She was easily as tall as a human with light golden tan hair and a tawny lionesses body. "My name is Anisa" She told them quietly before beginning "History, is a strange thing to try to tell. For no two people ever see it the same way. Tales are warped by the exaggerations of those who recorded them, and by those who wish to make themselves seen as the better man to those who come after." She paused and surveyed the room and then a shimmering ball appeared in the air before her with seemingly no action on her part, it blurred changing colors rapidly for a moment before settling on the image of a massive tower surrounded by mountains. It looked like it had been sculpted out of clay rather then built of stone. "The story of magic as it is now and how it became that way begins some 10,000 years ago, with the last great Mage War. Little is remembered anymore about the war itself, only a few images and the tale of how the war ended as well as the names of those two great Sorcerer Adepts. The Dark Adept Ma'ar and Urtho the Mage of Silence." The sphere shifted showing two images. One, a scowling man wearing a hood, and the other an older man with silver hair, smiling faintly.

"The war was terrible and lasted many years with a loss of life that compares only to the two recent world wars. It would have likely continued for many more had Ma'ar not managed to slip an assassin through to Urtho. Although the healers were able to slow the progress of the poison it was known that there was no antidote and so Urtho evacuated the great tower and the surrounding army even as he lay dieing, for built into his tower was a failsafe. With his death a device would undo every spell within the tower and surrounding area. Wishing that his people might not have to fight Ma'ar without his help he entrusted a weapon much like the one in his own tower to the Black Gryphon Skandranon." The image changed to show a massive jet black gryphon far bigger then the relatively dainty Vera.

"Skandranon knew that Urtho didn't mean for him to use the weapon right then, but he would not stand for the man that created him dieing without knowing that the threat to them was gone. He took the weapon and used a gate to enter Ma'ar palace. Something Ma'ar had never warded against for he believed no one was crazy enough to try it. There, Skandranon found and freed two other gryphons that had been captured, and all three snuck through the secret corridors of the ancient palace to the throne room before bursting out of the passage." The entire class sat, utterly rapt as the story played out in the projection, it was obvious that is wasn't a recording in this case, but that didn't seem to matter as they watched. Anisa smiled knowingly before continuing. "As they burst into the room they came upon a shocking sight, a gate, open in the throne room. And visible, sitting on the other side looking for all the world as though he wasn't minutes from dieing, was Urtho."

"As Skandranon tells it, Urtho's plan had been to lure Ma'ar through the gate just as he died. Trapping him with no way to escape before the failsafe activated. Skandranon wasted no time questioning their good luck and activated the device he carried before hurling it at the shocked Ma'ar while the other two gryphons ran for the portal Skandranon following quickly before Ma'ar could recover from his shock. The device activated, and Ma'ar and his palace were destroyed. Every spell undone and the magic held therein set loose. Urtho, though weakened and mere minutes from death, was still able to change the destination of the gate and Skandranon and the two others escaped the tower to those who would eventually create the city of White Gryphon." Anisa paused as the sphere faded away still holding the image of Skandranon as he came through the collapsing gate, bleached snow white by the incredible power being exerted by the damaged portal. "And here we come to what puts this war apart from all others that had ever been fought and all that would follow." Talyn straightened the notes he had been intending to take long forgotten.

"Most would think that mere mortals such as ourselves cannot alter the nature of magic, and this thought would be true, to an extent. If only one of Urtho's devices had activated that day no doubt the results would have still been terrible, for the magics wrought by a sorcerer Adept are almost unthinkably powerful. But for **two**such devices to be activated, mere minutes apart, and in places of equal power... There is good reason the event was forever know as, The Cataclysm." That day Magic was warped, as was everything it touched. The lands that were greatest effected became a great forest, the magic twisting the trees and creatures within. This is where many of the magical beings of today come from. Created by wild magic during the years that followed. Part of Urtho's army, the clans of the Kaled'a'inwho became the Tayledras swore an oath to their goddess Kal'enel to cleanse these warped lands. A task that took them nearly 2000 years. Now although bent and warped that day, magic still remained mostly as it had been. Perhaps a few spells didn't work quiet as they had, but things remained almost the same. It was an event that occurred 2000 years later as the Tayledras neared the end of their duty that the true extent of the damage caused by The Cataclysm became clear. Time. The Cataclysm had been so powerful that not only had it warped the world but it had also warped time. Reflecting through the eons to that age 2000 years later. We were lucky, very lucky, a second Cataclysm was averted, though barely. But the damage was still done. The land was saved, but Magic as it was, broke. The many ways in which magic changed that day are still being discovered even now, 8000 years later." Anisa stopped here with a sigh and looked out over the class.

"I will end there for the day, does anyone have any questions?" She asked, everyone blinked, trying to shake themselves out of the slight trance the story had put them in. Anisa waited patiently for them to collect themselves. Talyn hesitated before raising his hand.

"Yes Ashton?" she asked.

"When you said 'magic broke' what do you mean exactly? How can magic itself 'brake'?" He asked hesitantly, hoping he didn't sound like an idiot. Anisa smiled.

"A very good question to ask. The simplest answer would be that we just don't know. What exactly it was in magic that broke has never been determined. Only that somehow the Cataclysm did _something_, it changed something on a fundamental level. The way magic flowed over the surface of the world was changed, as was the way it worked. For instance long ago _no one_ used focuses of any kind, it wasn't needed. Magic as it is now is more chaotic, we require a focus to help tame that wild magic and make it work in a reasonable way. This is why focus-less magic is so difficult. It takes a strong will to tame magic without some kind of help."

X X X

Talyn knocked cautiously on Devaran's office door wondering just what the Naga had planned for him. History had finished only an hour before and his head was still spinning with everything he had learned. "Come in!" Devaran called sharply. Talyn pushed the door open and stepped inside. Devaran was sitting behind his desk, several scrolls and dusty looking books arrayed in front of him. "Ah, good your here." He rolled up the small scroll he'd been reading and put it in the desk. "If you want to take another dose of your potion I'd advise you do so if you want it to have taken effect in time to be useful."

"I already did." Talyn answered, Devaran nodded and slithered out from behind his desk.

"We're going to be using one of the ritual rooms, it will limit outside interference in the detection spells I want to use." He explained, Talyn nodded and stepped out of the way as the professor slithered out of the room. They didn't go far, just down the hall a bit to a stone room about 15 feet square. The floor was a dizzying swirl of different colored stones inlaid into the ground. "Sit down in the center." Devaran called as he started scribbling something around the edges of the pattern with what looked like a stick of chalk. Talyn did as ordered, watching as Devaran continued to scribble out runes for a few minutes before finishing. "I'm going to recast the monitoring spell from yesterday, please try to contain your reactions, a repeat of yesterday will interfere with the runes." He explained, Talyn nodded warily and managed to only cringe at the sight of the pulsing black blob attached to his soul as the projection flickered into existence. Devaran began tracing out a symbol in the air and the image changed, a wild array of colors chasing across the projection.

"Interesting." Devaran muttered and cast a spell in Talyn's direction, he flinched as it hit, feeling like ice had just sunk through his skin. The projection flickered and a sharp pain shot through his scar. Talyn grimaced in discomfort. Devaran hummed and shot two more spells at Talyn, the first gained no reaction but the second made the blob in the projection writhe, Talyn shuddered feeling the scar split open and begin to bleed sluggishly while dull pain pounded through his head. "Believe it or not, a physical reaction like that is actually a good thing, it means that its is anchored mostly in your physical form rather then your soul." Devaran explained while he waited for both the blob and Talyn to stop twitching in pain. "Now sit as still as possible, I'm going to activated the runes, if you move to much it might backfire and incinerate you."

Talyn stared at him a bit wide eyed at that pronouncement. Devaran didn't bother saying anything else to Talyn as with a single sharp word the runes began to glow with dim blue light. Talyn stayed perfectly still while glowering at the professor, he did _not_ appreciate not being warned about this ahead of time. Talyn winced as his scar started to twinge sharply, it felt rather like it was being poked repeatedly with a sharp stick. The projection wavered the colors of the surface shifting, the silver representing his magic brightened slightly as several arcs of green tinged silver magic flared outward. Light sparked around Talyn as the magic came slightly into the visible spectrum before being reabsorbed.

"Well, I was expecting to have to be the barer of bad news, but it would seem whoever made this did not do so intentionally especially given what it is, that should make its removal relatively simple."

"You figured out what it is?" Talyn asked hopefully. Devaran hesitated frowning at him before answering.

"Yes, its a horcrux, a very badly made one. Almost absurdly badly made, it has no protections whatsoever on it."

"And a horcrux is?" Talyn repeated.

"A horcrux is a piece of a persons soul, usually placed in a heavily protected object that is _supposed_ to make the user, although not truly immortal, extremely difficult to kill. This one wasn't likely created intentionally. Although a large piece of soul, it has no protections and the magic from the killing curse you took as a child has damaged it. There is something else as well..." Talyn blinked a tinge of rage and disgust breaking through the powerful calming potion at the fact that he had a piece of Voldemort's _soul_ in him, he focused back on Devaran wondering what else could possibly be wrong.

"What?" He asked tiredly, Devaran grinned wryly.

"You wouldn't happen to have nearly gotten hit with any other killing curse recently, would you? Or tried, apparently successfully, to block one?" Talyn stared at him blankly at this. The only time he had would have... Been.. The, graveyard... Talyn's thoughts screeched to a halt as what Farla had said yesterday about the killing curse flashed back to him. It didn't have to hit you directly, if it hit your magic it worked just as well.

Priori Incantatem, the spell Voldemort had used had been a killing curse. Even if the magic seemed to fight back and forth. Because of the nature of the spell it should have passed straight through and killed him either way! Devaran chuckled at the look on his face.

"I'll take that as a yes then," He deadpanned with a smile. "Well I am happy to inform you that your record with the killing curse is currently 2 to 0, not bad for a curse no one has every survived before." Talyn growled softly in aggravation, but Devaran plowed on ahead. "It would also seem that your apparent immunity to the curse, which you seem to be absorbing, has not been imparted to the horcrux. Your last foray into near death appears to have seriously damaged it, being not quiet alive, it can't be killed so easily but the curse did weaken it greatly. I think if we act in the next few weeks, before it can regain its strength, it could be removed without to much trouble." Talyn stared at him for a long moment before finally speaking.

"Are you saying..." He asked warily.

"Yes, yes I am. No annoying theatric should be necessary to remove the horcrux, it will take a fair bit of power and ill need to speak with several other teachers and the headmistress to decided exactly how it should be done, but it shouldn't be very difficult at all." Devaran seemed rather pleased with the outcome, but Talyn wasn't so happy. _Nothing_ was every that easy, not for him, the only question was when and where the shit was going to hit the fan.

X X X

Quetzal- ta da! Next chapter will have a time skip of about a week maybe two to the removal of the horcrux and one of the major other events as well which is related. Talyn has some very good instincts, the shit will indeed hit the fan. Stay tuned! ^_^

One more thing! I didn't go into that history class so in depth just for filler, its very important to the plot! If you skipped it go back! And if you liked the story of Skan then go check out the book Black Gryphon, by Mercedes Lackey. That history lecture is almost scene by scene to the end of the book. (it also and two sequels)


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